Meritaten : Princess of Thebes
by SophStratt
Summary: Lillian Carnahan is an explorer, and sister to Jonathon and Evy. When Evy and Jonathon want to race off to Hamunaptra, Lillian goes along, eager for excitement. But with her sister waking an immortal mummy, and her falling in love with the charming Rick O'Connell, will she have time to find out about her past life as a Princess of Egypt, or will she be too busy killing the undead?
1. The Key To Hamunaptra

**Cairo, Egypt**

A tall, dark haired woman walked into the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities looking for someone in particular. It didn't take long to find who she was looking for…all she had to do was follow the soft voice that echoed through the museum from the library within.

"Sacred Stones. Sculpture and Aesthetics. Socrates, Seth, volume one, volume two and volume three…" The woman spoke to herself, as she placed books back into their specific places on the shelf, balancing on the ladder and appeared unaware of the other woman's approach.

"You keep talking to yourself, and you'll scare people away. Or you already have." The smooth English accent flowed out of the woman's mouth and brought a smile to the younger woman's face. The woman looked down and spied her older sister. They looked very similar, though her sister's skin was slightly more tanned due to spending most of her time out in the sun and her dark brunette curls stopped at the middle of her back. Her eyes were a light hazel and she stood taller than Evy at 5'7 and she was slightly more curvy.

"Lillian, what are you doing here? I thought you didn't come back from your adventures for another week?" Evy questioned., eyeing her sister with mild speculation. Lillian shrugged.

"We had to return. The leader of the expedition shattered both of his legs as we climbed Mount Sinai. He fell and tumbled down the cliff until I managed to catch him. So I thought I'd come and annoy you and the curator. I know how much he loves me." Lillian said, sarcastically.

And that is where people start noticing the differences between the two Carnahan sisters. Lily is sarcastic, stubborn and has the longest fuse attached to her temper. You could try to rile her up for days and not get a rise out of her, unless you did something drastic like blackening her family name or reputation. Evy is sweet, kind, but has a very short temper. Lillian loves adventures that involve her using her guns and throwing knife, whereas Evy loves reading about other people's adventures in the Ancient Egyptian texts she's always got her nose buried in. But both girls knew almost all there was to know about Ancient and Modern-day Egypt.

"That is rotten luck. I hope the man is alright," Evy replied, turning her attention back to the books in her hand that still had to be put away. "I'll be down with you in a minute. I only have to put back…T-Tuthmosis?"

Lillian rolled her eyes at her sister, and Evie scowled at her, having caught her.

"What are you doing here?" Evy muttered to herself, as her sister walked away and headed towards the Egyptian history section, with the knowledge that Evy would take forever to place that final book in its correct place. Anyway, she wanted to brush up on her knowledge of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. "T, T, T, T, T, ah T. I'm going to put you where you belong."

Evy leaned back as she stared at the opposite book cabinet, where the T's were, her arm reaching towards it with the book in her hand. She almost had it, and she was grunting with the effort it took, but as she stretched a little bit further, the ladder moved away from the shelf and Evy squealed in surprise. She was now balancing the ladder on just two legs. The book on Tuthmosis had fallen to the floor in her startled moment, but now she couldn't care less. This was not the moment for her love of ancient books and the care of the aforementioned ancient books to cloud her mind.

"Help." She whispered, as though any noise louder than that whisper would startle the ladder and sent her falling to her immediate death.

Lillian was flicking through a text describing the significance of hieroglyphs, when she heard a loud groan and an accompanying shriek. She raised an eyebrow, wondering what had frightened her younger sister, when the bookcase almost collapsed on top of her. She dived immediately, her heart racing in her chest, and landed into a forward roll to get further out of the way of the surprise book shower. She rose to her feet, and watched as the rest of the book cases fell, one by one. As the very last one fell with a loud thud, Lillian reared onto her sister.

"Oops." Evy whispered, but Lillian caught it, and was fuming.

"Care to explain why I was almost crushed by a giant book case?" Lillian hissed quietly, though she wasn't sure why. The curator must have heard all of that commotion.

Evy opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by the monosyllabic stuttering of a very, _very_ stunned curator.

"What-How-I…Look at this!" He said, gaping at the destruction of the room as he walked over a fallen bookcase. Then he narrowed his focus to a very bashful Evy, and a very uncaring Lillian. He wondered, for a brief moment, when she had arrived, but shook the thought away and strode towards the Carnahan sisters. "Sons of pharaohs! Give me frogs, flies, locusts…anything but you!"

He jabbed a finger in Evy's direction, and the younger Carnahan had to hold her sister's hand to stop her from moving forward and hitting the angry old man.

"Compared to you, the other plagues were a joy!" The curator exclaimed.

"I am so very sorry. It was an accident." Evy apologised in her soft voice, and Lillian rolled her eyes. She knew that the curator wouldn't accept her apology…on the surface at least.

"When Ramses destroyed Syria, that was an accident. You…are a catastrophe! Look at my library! Why do I put up with you?" He questioned, and Lillian was almost certain he meant it rhetorically, so she answered anyway.

"You put up with her because she can read and write Ancient Egyptian and she can decipher hieroglyphics and hieratic and she's the only person within a thousand miles - except me, but you couldn't find a bone in my body that cares- who knows how to properly code and catalogue this library, that's why."

"I put up with her - and by extension, you - because your father and mother were our finest patrons. That's why," He paused, and continued in a softer voice as he noticed how the sisters cringed at the mention of their deceased parents. "Allah rest their souls. I don't care how you do it, I don't care how long it takes. Straighten up this meshiver!"

With that last order, he turned on his heel and practically stomped back to his office with both the Carnahan's staring at his back.

"I hate that man." Lillian said, as soon as he was out of hearing range. Evy was about to open her mouth to berate her sister for saying such a thing, when they heard another thud. This time it came from outside the library. Lillian instantly walked towards it, and Evy sighed, following her. She didn't like how Lillian seemed to just gravitate towards danger without even thinking it through first.

The two sisters headed towards the room that held all the larger artefacts and sarcophaguses.

"Hello?" Evy called out. When no one answered, Lilly pulled out her golden Egyptian switchblade. Her brother, Jonathon, had given it to her for her birthday last year. He probably thought she wouldn't notice the fact the name engraved on the casing wasn't hers (She was pretty sure her name was not 'Michael') but she loved it anyway, in spite of the fact he'd robbed it from some poor bloke. Evy raised an eyebrow at her older sister, but moved forward anyway, but not before grabbing one of the lit torches first.

"Abdul? Mohammed? Bob?" Evy questioned, making Lillian roll her eyes.

"Evy, these people are dead. They aren't really capable of engaging you in a conversation," Lillian muttered to her, as she heard a thump coming from one of the sarcophaguses. She looked over at Evy and they shared a confused glance, before the stepped towards the source of the noise. "Or at least they shouldn't be able to."

Evy leaned forward to inspect the mummy, when suddenly it sprung upright. Lillian realized, just seconds before she threw her knife, that it couldn't have moved by itself, so gripped the hilt of the knife tighter so she didn't toss it. Evy screamed however, and an all too familiar laugh came from within the sarcophagus. Lillian seethed silently as her brother sat up, his arm around the mummy as he chuckled his arse off, and Evy slapped his arm.

"Have you no respect for the dead?" Evy gasped, as Lillian carefully replaced the knife in her boot, before she straightened up and sighed. She couldn't stay mad at her brother. He was a lovable idiot.

"Of course I do! But sometimes I'd rather like to join them." Jonathon said, as he played with the mummy's arm.

"I could help you out with that, dear brother, if you would like?" Lillian asked, smiling at him in a way that made her brother gulp out of nervousness, especially when his eyes narrowed on the two pistols that were tucked into the shoulder holster she was wearing underneath her thin shirt. She never wore them over her shirt as she felt it got too hot with the shirt buttoned up, so she always wore the holsters over her vest instead.

"Well I wish you'd do it sooner rather than later before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours. Now get out." Evy ordered their older brother. Evy always was the voice of reason in the Carnahan siblings, always the authority figure, because the other two were too reckless (Lillian) or too silly (Jonathon) to play that part.

"My dear sweet baby sisters…" Jonathon hiccupped, before continuing to stumble over his words as he climbed out of the sarcophagus. "I'll have you…know that at this precise moment my career is on a high note."

"'High note'. Ha! Jonathon, that could possibly be the funniest thing you've ever said." Lillian laughed at her brother. High note? Really?

"Jonathon, please, I'm really not in the mood for you. I've just made a mess of the library…and the Bembridge scholars rejected my application form again. They say I don't have enough experience in the field." Evy lamented, as she sat down on the base of a golden statue.

Lillian gave Jonathon a look, and together, they kneeled down on either side of their little sister and grinned at her.

"You'll always have us, old mum." Jonathon said.

"If Jonathon doesn't get murdered by someone he's swindled money from." Lillian teased him, as she took one of Evy's hands in her own. Evy smiled at them, glad she had their support if nobody else's.

"Besides, I have just the thing to cheer you up." Jonathon said, climbing to his feet, and walking back over to the sarcophagus. He lifted the mummy's leg, searching the sarcophagus for whatever would bring a smile to his little sister's face.

"Oh, no! Jonathon, not another worthless trinket!" Evy whined. Lillian rolled her eyes. One of these days, Jonathon might actually bring her something worthwhile and then she'd have to eat those words. Despite his many faults, Jonathon always came through with something eventually. "If I have to take one more piece of junk to the curator to try and…sell for you…"

Evy trailed off as both of the Carnahan sisters stared at the small box in Jonathon's outstretched hand. Evy took it and instantly her eyes scanned over it, trying to date it and work out where it could have come from.

"Where did you get this?" Lillian questioned, lifting her eyes briefly from the box to Jonathon.

"On a dig down in Thebes," Jonathon replied, and Lillian knew that his answer was the most unlikely but chose to accept it for now. "My whole life I've never found anything. Please tell me I've found something."

Lillian watched as her sister slightly squeezed the base, and the top opened into several little triangles, with a piece of folded papyrus in the hollow centre. Lillian carefully took it out, and looked at her brother and sister with a contained excitement. This felt like the beginning of something. She couldn't tell if it was good or bad, but it definitely spelled adventure.

"Jon." Evy said, staring at the aged papyrus in her sister's hand.

"Yes?"

"I think you found something."

"You definitely found something," Lillian corrected, as she gently opened the map and handed one side over to her sister so she could spread it out completely. They all stared at it and then each other with mystified expressions. Yes, Jonathon Carnahan had definitely found something.


	2. The Expedition

"You see the cartouche there. It's the official royal seal of Seti the First, I'm sure of it." Evy pointed it out to the curator, as she hovered at his desk while he examined the map.

Lillian was leaning against one wall, flipping her knife up into the air and catching it by the hilt each and every time, completely and utterly uninterested in the conversation. She loved history, especially Egyptian history, and she was very excited by the map, but she wanted to be living the adventure. She didn't want to be standing here, pretending as though some old man's opinion really mattered to her. They had a map. They had dated it. It seemed like the real deal. So why couldn't they just go off and find it yet?

Jonathon sat in the chair opposite to the curator, looking quite bored himself as he waited for a more exciting topic of conversation to be introduced.

"Perhaps." The curator replied, sparking Lillian's temper, but she bit her tongue.

"Two questions: Who the hell was Seti the First, and was he rich?" Jonathon questioned as stood and walked around the curator's desk. Lillian rolled her eyes. Jonathon was being classic Jonathon; showing his lack of Egyptian history knowledge and his love of money at the same time.

"He was the second pharaoh of the 19th dynasty and was said to be the wealthiest pharaoh of them all." Evy explained.

"Good. That's good. I like this fellow. I like him very much." Jonathon said, forcing Lillian to roll her eyes at him again. She loved her brother, but he was worse than a magpie. If he saw something shiny, he would just take it.

"We've already dated the map." She said, and when she didn't continue, Evy took over.

"It's almost 3,000 years old. And if you look at the hieratic just here…well…it's Hamunaptra." Evy explained, as the curator looked at the map under a magnifying glass.

Lillian stopped tossing her knife, replacing it in her shoe, as the thing she wanted to discuss the most had now been brought up.

"Dear God, don't be ridiculous. We're scholars, not treasure hunters." The curator said, leaning back in his seat and resting his clasped hands on his stomach as he looked up at Evy.

"Speak for yourself, old man. I'm not a scholar, I'm an explorer." Lillian interjected, before he had a chance to continue what Lillian assumed would have been a long-winded rant.

"Be that as it may, Hamunaptra's a myth told by ancient Arab storytellers to amuse Greek and Roman tourists." He replied, shooting a tired look in her direction. She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck from side to side, as an intimidation technique. It never worked with the curator, but she would never give up trying.

"I know all the silly blather that the city is protected by the curse of a mummy nonsense, but my research has led me to believe that the city itself may have actually existed." Evy said, and Lillian could see the excitement in her features.

"Are we talking about the Hamunaptra?" Jonathon questioned, peering up at Evie as he bent over the curator's shoulder to see the map.

"Yes, Jonathon. The City of the Dead where the earliest pharaohs are said to have hid the wealth of Egypt." Lillian informed him, as she lowered herself, in one quick, fluid motion, onto one of the chairs in front of the curators desk.

"Yes, in a big underground treasure chamber," Jonathon said. When the curator snorted, Jonathon whirred round on him. "Come on. Everybody knows the story. The entire necropolis was rigged to sink into the sand on Pharaoh's command. Turn of a switch and the whole place would disappear into the sand with the treasure."

Lillian was so immersed in her brother's enthusiasm and actual historical knowledge, she didn't see the curator lift the map up and place it against the flame of one of the lit candles on his desk.

"As the Americans would say, it's all fairy tales and hokum-" He yelled at the end, and drew Lillian's attention. The map was lit up and the curator dropped it to the floor at her feet. She quickly patted it out with her foot, and glared at him. "Oh my goodness. Look at that!"

All three Carnahan's dropped to their knees and inspected the map that was in Jonathon's hands. It was singed on one end, and the area that had the part with the lost city was burnt off.

"You've burnt it! You've burnt the part with the lost city." Jonathon lamented.

"It's for the best I'm sure. Many men have wasted their lives in the foolish pursuit of Hamunaptra. No one's ever found it. Most have never returned." The curator said in a weirdly ominous voice that simply made the Carnahan's more curious about the map and the location to which it pertained.

Lillian, being the most curious, took the map from Jonathon's hands, and saluted the curator.

"I suppose you're right. It is a dangerous task that we are not equipped or prepared to partake in. We'll just go and leave you to your business. Come on, let's go." She said, not waiting for her brother and sister to even get up off the floor before she turned on her heel and quickly left the annoying old man's office.

She would grill Jonathon and he'd tell her where he really got the box from, and then she'd find a way to find Hamunaptra. To quench her curiosity and her thirst for adventure.

Interrogating Jonathon led the Carnahan's to the local prison. Lillian wanted to be able to say she was surprised, but it was her brother. Nothing about this surprised her because it was her brother.

"Come! Step over the threshold. Welcome to Cairo Prison, my humble home." The prison warden welcomed them as they followed him through the doors into the actual prison. It was pretty much what Lillian had expected. Dirty, smelly and full of unattractive criminals. Although, the table where things were being sold, she hadn't expected.

"You told me that you got it on a dig down in Thebes." Evy accused Jonathon, as she gripped his arm. Evy had been straightening the library up a little bit more when Lillian had interrogated their brother, so she hadn't understood where they were until just then.

"Well, I was mistaken."

"You lied." Evy snapped at him.

"He lies to everybody. What makes us so special?" Lillian questioned, as she walked ahead of the pair.

"We are his sisters."

"Which makes you both more gullible." Jonathon replied, and Evy knew he had her there. Though it can't have been much of a victory for him.

"Jonathon, you stole it from a drunk at the local casbah!" Evy said, suddenly refusing to lose their argument.

"Picked his pocket, actually. So I don't think-" Jonathon said, turning them around. Lillian stopped and waited as Evy spun them around again and continued walking forward towards the jail cells.

"What exactly is this man in prison for?" Evy questioned, as she approached her sister and the warden.

"This I don't know, but when I heard you were coming, I asked him that myself." The warden replied, leaning an arm on the jail cell, and called to some other prison guard in Arabic.

"And what did he say?" Evy asked.

"He said he was just looking for a good time." The warden answered. Lillian smirked at his words.

"I think I like the man already." She said aloud to no one in particular, but Evy shot her a glare.

The glare held a warning. It said 'no funny business or else'. Evy knew that Lillian wouldn't just jump into bed with the man, but Lillian wasn't as reserved as Evy was with her body and how she presented it. Evy wore long skirts and cardigans, and Lillian wore trousers and vest tops with a thin shirt over the top. They were polar opposites in terms of personality and sometimes that worried Evy, as she was very careful and Lillian…wasn't.

The door to the cell opened and two men struggled to contain a third as he rushed forward to the bars, causing the warden to step back. Lillian noted that the man looked slightly feral, but was still quite handsome under the unshaved stubble and long, unruly hair.

"This-This is the man you stole it from?" Evt questioned Jonathon quietly.

"Yes, exactly. So why don't we go sniff out a spot of tiffin-" Jonathon started to find an excuse to leave, but was cut off by the considerably handsome prisoner who had been forced onto his knees.

"Who are you? And who are the broads?" He questioned.

"'Broad'?" Evy repeated in disbelief at his lack of manners. Lillian was just as insulted.

"'Broad'? Do I look like a 'broad' to you, pal?" She demanded. Jonathon chuckled.

"That's true. I'm surprised you aren't locked in there with him."

"By rights, you should be too, Jon." She retorted.

"I'm just a local sort of missionary chap, spreading the good word and all that," Jonathon said, as he hesitantly stepped closer to the metal bars that separated him from the criminal. He reached back until he caught hold of Lillian's arm and tugged her forward. "These are my sisters, Lillian and Evy."

"How do you do?" Evy questioned, out of pure politeness. The man's eyes travelled to the other sister, and she just nodded at him. He hadn't heard her speak yet, and with the way she was dressed and how completely uncaring and at ease she looked, his interest had been piqued.

"Oh well, guess they're not a total loss." He said.

"I beg you pardon." Evy said, staring at the man in disgust. The warden shouted in Arabic at someone behind them, then muttered something about being right back. Jonathon sensed that the man would respond better to a woman, so turned to Lillian. He would have turned to Evy, but now she was silently fuming about the chap's blatant sexism.

"Ask him about the box." Jonathon whispered to her, and Lillian nodded a reply.

"We found…" Lillian started, before she noticed the man was no longer paying attention to them. Instead of being polite about, she whistled loudly and his eyes snapped back to hers immediately. "Thanks. We found your puzzle box and we wanted to ask you some questions about it."

"No."

"No." Evy repeated the word as though she had no idea what it meant.

"No. You came to ask me about Hamunaptra." He said loudly, and Jonathon winced beside Evy, and Lillian stepped forward slightly, crossing her arms over chest.

"How do you know the box pertains to Hamunaptra?" She questioned.

"Because that's where I was when I found it. I was there." He replied.

Jonathon decided to get brave, and stepped closer to the bars. Lillian winced, already knowing that it was a bad move.

"But how do we know that's not a load of pig's wallow?"

"Do I know you?" The man questioned, and Lillian knew she'd been right.

"No, I've just got one of those faces." And suddenly, Jonathon was on the floor, with Evy kneeling beside him, and the man was getting struck on the back as punishment for punching Lillian's brother in the face. Lillian stepped over her brother and moved closer to the bars.

"You were actually at Hamunaptra?" Lillian asked, as she stared down at him.

"Yeah, I was there." He said, smiling cockily up at her.

"You swear?"

"Every damn day."

Lillian didn't reply to that. She merely narrowed her eyes at him, until he said what she wanted to hear.

"I was there. Seti's place. City of the Dead." He replied, waving his hands around, the chain on his handcuffs clinking with the movement.

"Do you think you could tell me how to get there?" Lillian questioned, though it wasn't really a question and more of a demand. He just blinked owlishly at her, as though those words were the last he thought would come out of her mouth (which is weird, because if someone asked you if you knew about Hamunaptra and you told them you'd been there, how could you not expect them to ask you where it is?). She looked over her shoulder, before she leaned in a bit more. "The exact location."

"You want to know?"

"I wouldn't of asked if I didn't." She retorted, leaning closer.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Obviously."

He gestured for her to move closer so she did, and he grabbed her chin and pressed his lips against hers roughly. Lillian almost saw that happening, but let it anyway. He was behind bars, probably sharing a cell with a lot of other foul smelling criminals. One kiss couldn't kill her to spare.

"Then get me the hell out of here!" He said, after he'd pulled away.

"That one was free. Next time, it's going to cost you a body part." Lillian said quietly, before he was grabbed.

He fought against the guards long enough to say one last thing.

"Do it, lady!" Then a guard clubbed his hand, and he let go of the bar he had been gripped and they dragged him back inside just in time for the warden to arrive again.

"Where are they taking him?" Lillian asked, gesturing to the now closed door.

"To be hanged. Apparently, he had a very good time."

Lillian stood just behind the prison warden and Evy as the hanging began. Her mouth was set in a frown, as she watched the man who had kissed her forced to march up to the gallows.

"I'll give you 100 pounds to save this man's life." Evy tried to barter with the warden. Lillian sighed. 100 pounds wouldn't be enough.

"Madam, I would pay 100 pounds just to see him hang."

"2-200 pounds!" Evy exclaimed.

"Proceed!"

"300 pounds!"

Lillian was starting to get a little nervous and impatient and her trigger finger was getting an itch that only pulling aforementioned trigger would scratch. The hangman put the noose around the man's neck and tightened it, before he spoke to him. Lillian couldn't hear the exchange, but the hangman soon looked up at the prison warden and spoke in Arabic to him.

"Of course we don't let him go!" The warden replied.

The hangman smacked the prisoner on the back of the head, before he walked away.

"500 pounds!" Evy upped the ante, and got the warden's attention. He told his men to wait, before he gave Evy his attention.

"And what else? I'm a very lonely man." He said, gripping Evy's thigh. Just as Lillian was about to pull out one of her pistols, Evy smacked his hand away with her book, causing the rest of the crowd in the prison to laugh at his expense.

This clearly wasn't the response he wanted, so he gestured to the hangman to continue, and he pulled down the lever that opened the trap door underneath the man's feet. Lillian barely registered Evy's cry, as her eyes were focused on the man as he hung from his neck. It hadn't snapped, so now they were forced to watch him strangle to death. Lillian wanted to whip out her gun and fire, and get him down that way, but Evy had warned her not to. Something about not ending up in prison herself.

"Ha, ha! His neck did not break!" His words sent some of the other prisoners into a frenzy, but Lillian wanted to punch the warden in the face. "Oh, I'm so sorry! Now we must watch him strangle to death."

"He knows the location to Hamunaptra." Lillian didn't even realize that the words had left her mouth until her brain recognised them as her own. Evy stared at her, but knew that it was the only way to save the man's life now.

"You lie!"

"She would never!" Evy protested on Lillian's behalf.

"Are you telling me this filthy, godless son of a pig knows where to find the City of the Dead?" The warden questioned.

"Yes!" Lillian snapped at him. The man's face was bright red now from what she could see from the balcony.

"Truly?"

"And if you cut him down, we will give you ten percent." Lillian said, hurriedly.

"Fifty percent."

"Twenty."

"Forty."

"Thirty." Evy raised the bar.

"Twenty-five." The warden said, lowering it again.

"Deal!" Lillian snapped. The warden groaned and as soon as she knew that they had won, she whipped out her gun and fired. The bullet whizzed through the air, cut through the rope and landed in the wooden beam just behind it. The man dropped to the ground, and began gasping for air.

The warden turned to stare at her, before appraising her.

"That was a very good shot."

"Trick shots are my speciality." She replied, walking to the edge of the balcony, so she had a better view of the man, the gun still in her hand. He rolled over and stared up at her, and found it in him to smile as she saluted him, before she stepped back and disappeared from view.

This was going to be interesting, he thought.


	3. The Mejai Strike

**Giza Port - Cairo**

The three Carnahan's walked down the pathway at the port to the boat they'd be embarking on. Jonathon, as usual, had only brought the clothes on his back, Evy had two suitcases, small, and Lillian had two duffel bags that she'd bought from an American soldier. They were all wearing similar shades of colour; white, beige, cream. Jonathon was wearing his 'explorer' hat, Evy was wearing a wide brimmed hat that belonged on a sunbathing socialite, and Lillian had put on her favourite tan, felt cowboy hat she'd 'acquired' from a cowboy who had fallen asleep in a bar she had been drinking in.

"Do you really think he's going to show up?" Evy asked, yet again.

"Have a little faith, baby sister. He'll probably bathe, shave and come straight here once he's sorted himself out. The man just got out of prison." Lillian replied, fanning herself with her hand. It was hotter, despite the fact she was wearing a short sleeved shirt, but Lillian always loved the heat.

"But are you sure he'll show?" Evy pressed.

"Yes, undoubtedly, knowing my luck. He may be a cowboy, but I know the breed. His word is his word."

"Enlighten me, big brother, how do you know his type if his word is his word?" Lillian teased him, and he nudged Evy so that Evy would stumbled into Lillian. She kept them both upright, and narrowed her eyes at him playfully.

"Well, personally, I think he's filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel." Evy ranted.

"Really? I liked him. He wasn't so hard on the eyes, which says a lot, because he was filthy and rude. I'll give you those. But still I liked him." Lillian said, and she was going to continue, but someone cut her off.

"Anyone I know?" A familiar voice questioned.

All three Carnahan's turned, and Lillian raised an eyebrow at the sight in front of her. Surely, this could not be the man from the prison. Mr O'Connell had cut his ratty mane of hair and now it was neat and combed, and didn't get in the way of his blue eyes. O'Connell stared back at Lillian, noticing that she had braided her hair. He wasn't sure it suited her. Her sister, maybe. Lillian seemed to realise that they'd been gazing at each other and snapped out of it.

"You clean up well, Mr O'Connell." She said, innocently.

Rick smirked at her, before Jonathon took his attention.

"Smashing day for the start of an adventure, O'Connell?" Jonathon said, patting O'Connell on the chest, before he shook his hand.

"Yeah, smashing." He replied, slipping his hand in to his jacket to check his wallet was still there. She didn't blame him. Because of Jonathon and his sticky fingers, Lillian kept all of her money locked away in a tin box she carried around with her when he was with her.

"Oh, no, no, I'd never steal from a partner, partner." Jonathon said, lightly punching his arm. Lillian bit back any remarks the fact he was the reason she no longer owned any jewellery, well except her mother's necklace, but he would never take that.

"That reminds me, no hard feelings about the…" O'Connell trailed off, mocking a punch instead.

"Oh, no, happens all the time." Jonathon replied, waving the past away.

"Mr O'Connell. Can you look me in the eye and guarantee this isn't some kind of flimflam?" Evy questioned, and Lillian picked up where she left of.

"Because if it is, I'll hurt you. Badly." Lillian smiled at him, as she put emphasis on the last word, giving it more impact.

"You'll hurt me? Sweetheart, let me put it this way, my whole damn garrison believed in this so much…that without orders they marched across Libya and into Egypt to find that city. And when we got there, all we found was sand and blood," O'Connell stared in Lillian's brown eyes as he spoke, and he knew the words had sunken into her head. She knew this was dangerous, but was going to go through with it anyway. He reached down and grabbed her duffel bags from her hands. "Let me get your bags."

Then he walked away, leaving Lillian staring at his back, and the other two Carnahan's sniggering at her dumbfound expression.

"Yes, yes, you're right, Evy. Filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel. Nothing to like there at all." Jonathon mocked Evy's earlier words, as they both eyed Lillian.

"He-he-he called me sweetheart! Do I look like a sweetheart? No! Men are so frustrating!" Lillian hissed under her breath, as she stalked after him, muttering curses that Evy would scold her for when she finally caught up to her.

It was night now, and they were still sailing down the Nile. Lillian had found a quiet spot away from all the testosterone that was suffocating her on one side of the ship. Jonathon was playing poker, and Evy was reading in their room, so that left Lillian alone to her own devices. She decided to clean her guns and sharpen the collection of knives she'd brought with her.

And it seems Lillian wasn't the only one who had that idea.

A bag dropped heavily onto the table in front of her, and she gripped the whetstone and knife tighter in her hands. She narrowed her eyes at the offender and wasn't surprised to see it was O'Connell.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." He said, smirking down at her as he removed his jacket.

"It would take a lot more than you, Mr O'Connell, to scare me. Your manners, for instance." She replied, placing the whetstone back into its holder in her bag as she was satisfied with the sharpness of the blade. She tucked that one into a small knife holster on her leg. When she got ready for bed she'd keep it on underneath her nightgown, with her guns in their holsters under her pillow. The other weapons she'd keep under her bed.

"Still angry about that kiss, huh?"

"I've had better." Lillian replied, smirking at him, as she disassembled one of her pistols and began to clean out the mechanisms. He just stared down at her, before he snapped his bag open and revealed his weapons. Lillian raised an eyebrow, impressed by the collection he had amassed.

"So I see I'm not the only one who came prepared." Lillian said, running a finger along the row of shells he had tucked in along the edge of the fold out bag.

"Sweetheart, there's something out there. Something underneath that sand." O'Connell said, as he focused on his pistol. She tucked hers back into the empty holster on her shoulder, before she took out the other.

"Evy's hoping to find a book. Jon's looking for treasure. What do you think's out there?" Lillian questioned, as she cast a trained eye down the barrel of her gun to see if it was aiming straight.

"In a word, evil. The Bedouin and the Tuaregs believe that Hamunaptra is cursed." O'Connell replied, inwardly shocking the Carnahan woman. She hadn't expected such wise words from him. He sounded very different from the half-crazed, half-filthy man from the jail cell.

"Look, I don't believe in fairy tales and curses, O'Connell, but Evy is convinced that one of the most famous books in history is buried out there. The Book of Amun-Ra. It contains within it all the secret incantations of the old kingdom. When we were kids, Evy did nothing but go on about it. It's why we came to Egypt. It was her life's pursuit-"

"I didn't peg you down as a follower." Rick interrupted her.

"I'm not. I've gone my own way, done my own things, made my own path. Evy is my little sister, and when she decided to go to Egypt, I felt it was my responsibility to make sure she was safe. I would do anything for my family, Mr O'Connell. Understand that now."

Rick saw in her eyes that she meant what she said. If it came down to it, he was certain that this beautiful, puzzling woman would lay her life on the line to protect her brother and sister. Somehow that made her even more attractive, which did not help him at all.

"I got you. So the fact that they say the book is made of pure gold makes no never mind to you? Right?" He said, as he rubbed his shotgun down with a dirty rag. She rolled her eyes at him, and tossed him a clean one from her own pack. He took it and nodded his thanks.

"You know your history." Lillian said, smiling at him.

"I know my treasure."

Lillian watched him for a moment, as he finished cleaning his shotgun, and pulled two handguns from his bag to check next.

"Why did you kiss me?" She questioned, not fully knowing why she had to know.

"Who knows? I was about to be hanged. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Lillian felt the smile get wiped from her face. She packed up her weapons, rolling them up on the holder they were on, before slinging the bag onto her back.

"You have no idea how to talk to women, O'Connell." She muttered as she walked away from the table.

"What? What did I say?" He questioned, mostly to himself as he watched her walk away. He could say that he was a perfect gentlemen and that his eyes remained trained on the back of her head, but her curves beckoned to him and he followed them up and down.

"What is this woman doing to me?" He muttered, before he heard a noise that sounded familiar.

He cocked his gun, and stood, walking towards a shadow wearing a fez. The person the shadow belonged to was hiding behind some crates, and Rick instantly knew who it was eavesdropping on his conversation. He reached round the crates and grabbed the snivelling weasel, and shoved him against the crates.

"What a surprise! My good friend, you're alive!" Beni said, appearing to be happy, but Rick knew it was because he thought he would kill him. "I was so very, very worried."

"Well, if it ain't my little buddy, Beni. I think I'll kill you." Rick said, chambering a round and pressing the gun against Beni's chest.

"Think of my children!" The thin, pale coward cried, causing Rick to pause for a second.

"You don't have any children."

"Someday I might."

"Shut up!" Rick snapped, pushing Beni slightly more against the crates. "So you're the one who's leading the Americans. I might have known. So what's the scam, Beni? You take them out into the desert, and then you leave them to rot?"

"Unfortunately, no," Beni replied, figuring honesty was his only way to safety. "These Americans are smart. They pay me only half now, half when I get them back to Cairo. So this time I must go all the way."

"THat's the breaks, huh?" Rick questioned sarcastically, letting go of Beni as he holstered his weapon. Beni stared at his old American friend curiously.

"You never believed in Hamunaptra, O'Connell. Why are you going back?" The coward questioned, but before Rick could answer, they heard one of the camels start to make noises. Both men turned to look over at the animals, and saw Lillian patting one of the camels' heads.

"You see that girl?" Rick questioned, not tearing his eyes away from Lillian to see if Beni responded. She seemed to realise that she was being watched so turned, her weapons bag still slung across her shoulder, and raised an eyebrow at the pair, before sauntering away to her room. "She saved my neck."

"You always did have more balls than brains." Beni said, slapping Rick's arm gently and sniggering. When Rick seemed to join in on his laughter, Beni felt more at ease, especially when O'Connell rested his arm across Beni's shoulders.

"Goodbye, Beni." And suddenly, Beni wished he wasn't so naïve, as Rick tossed him overboard and his body cut through the warm Nile water.

"O'Connell!" Rick could hear Beni shout, as he started to pack away his gear. That is until he noticed the wet footprints that led towards the rooms. He checked to see if Beni was still in the river, which he was, and then he realised.

Someone had stolen aboard the boat. And he could guess why.

Lillian was dressed for bed, with the exceptions of the knife holstered on her thigh, and the two hand guns holstered on her shoulders. She had decided to keep them on her person, and the bag with her weapons in was at the end of her bed. Evy was pacing around the room, reading from a book as she readied herself for bed, and it was distracting. Lillian pulled the hand gun on her right side from its holster and placed it in the bag, so she could rest facing the wall, but not before she drew the curtains around her bed closed, allowing just a crack of light to seep in.

She wanted sleep, but all she could think of was that damn kiss. It wasn't that long, or that satisfying, or wanted, but she couldn't forget it at all. She blamed his blue eyes. She always had been a fool for men with pretty blue eyes.

She groaned silently, burying her face into her pillow, until she heard Evy gasp loudly.

She begrudgingly sat up, prepared to ask her sister what great discovery she'd made, or what had she realised she had forgotten back in Cairo, and then she saw him. A man dressed in all black robes, with a black turban, and black tattoos on his face, with a weird knife pressed against her sister's cheek. He seemed to not recognise her presence in the room.

She silently pulled out her knife, and gently pulled apart the curtains a little wider.

"Where is the map?" He questioned, his voice sounding like he'd swallowed a handful of gravel.

Evy was panicking, but she didn't draw attention to where her Lily was. Lily would get her out of this.

"There." She said, gesturing to the round end table in the centre of the small cabin.

"And the key? Where is the key?"

"The key? What key?" Evy asked, her eyes scanning the room for whatever key he was after. Suddenly, the door was kicked open and a knife flew through the air.

"Lillian! Evelyn!" Rick O'Connell shouted, as the man groaned. The knife had sunk into the centre of his back. Lillian flung herself out of her bed, wrapped an arm around the man's neck, and twisted the knife, causing the man to scream. Rick grabbed Evy's arm and pulled her out the way, while he trained his gun on the man Lillian was dealing with. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was impressed by the way she handled herself.

Another man appeared at the window, and Rick pushed Evy further behind him, as he opened fire. He quickly took that guy out, but a lantern dropped from the wall and a fire started, just as the man threw an elbow backwards and hit Lillian in the gut. She stumbled back and she grabbed her weapons bag from the end of her bed, slinging it over her shoulder, and forgot all her other belongings. Except from her knife.

Lillian pounced on him once more, grabbing the knife, tucking it into its holster, before using a lit candle to blind him. She turned on her heels, and rushed behind O'Connell as he provided cover fire for their escape. Evy ran down the corridor ahead of them, before she gasped and ran back again.

"The map! The map! We forgot the map!" She said, as she was about to race past them. Rick grabbed her arm, and pulled her back.

"Relax. I'm the map. It's all up here." He said, gesturing to his head.

"That's comforting." Lillian said, sarcastically, as she chambered rounds into both her hand guns.

Havoc was unleashed everywhere, due to the gunfire, and the mysterious men in black that had stole onto the ship. People were running wild, the animals were panicked and fire was starting to lick every available surface. They needed to get off the boat and quickly.

Rick grabbed his bag of weapons, and dropped it into Evy's arms.

"Hold on to this." He told her, as he used a wall for cover, with Lillian next to him, and Evy at the very end. They were getting ready to duck out, when bullets started raining around them. Lillian pushed Evy back so the pair with the weapons had more room. Rick was busy reloading, while Lillian occasionally leaned around him to shoot at whoever was blocking their escape route.

As Rick was reloading, bullets started ripping holes into the wall they were sheltering behind, getting closer and closer to Rick's head, until Lillian pulled his body away, as Evy tugged her back as well. And as Evy gasped with fright, Lillian and Rick exchanged a look and nodded, before springing into action.

They both pushed away from the wall, and started forward, guns ablaze, the smell of smoke and gunpowder filling their nostrils as they fired at the man on the balcony opposite them. In a matter of moments, they had taken him out, as well as a couple more who had joined in the fight.

Rick turned towards Evy, and Lillian, who had holstered her guns again, and was tightening the strap on her duffel bag.

"Can you swim?" He questioned them, as he grabbed his own bag from Evy, swinging it up onto his shoulder.

"Of course I can swim if the occasion calls for it!" Evy yelled back at him. Lillian understood where he was going with his inquiry and stepped back slightly, as he pulled her younger sister into his arms.

"Trust me. It calls for it." He said, before dumping her overboard, ignoring her scream. Rick turned towards Lillian, but she glared at him. So he merely gestured for her to dive in without his help.

Lillian barely registered the splash, before she moved forward, climbed over the railing and dived into the warm Nile water herself. She took a deep breath before her body hit the water, and then immediately swam upwards to the surface again. Lillian gasped, and pushed her hair out of her face, before she swam for the shoreline. Evy was already there, wringing out her white, now slightly sheer, nightgown. Hoping hers wasn't the same, she looked down at her similarly drenched white gown. It was clinging to her body, and accentuated certain body parts that could have done without being accentuated. O'Connell, Jonathon and the prison warden weren't too far behind them, and as soon as they were within ear shot, Evy began her complaining.

"We've lost everything! All of our tools, all the equipment, all my clothes!" She said, as Lillian dropped her wet duffel bag onto the bank, and rolled her shoulders in an attempt to work out the kinks. She rolled her eyes next as she felt someone staring at her.

She turned and saw O'Connell's eyes burning holes into her body, before he caught her eyes and cleared his throat, turning his eyes away.

"O'Connell!" A voice shouted from across the river. Lillian narrowed her eyes, and focused until she could make out the outline of a slim, pale man waving his arms manically to get O'Connell's attention. "Hey! O'Connell! It looks to me like I've got all the horses!"

"Hey, Beni!" Rick shouted back, stepping a little closer to the river bank so Beni could hear him better. "It looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!"

Realising his mistake, the man kicked at the water in frustration, forcing Lillian to have to stifle a snigger. She was certain that Evy wouldn't have appreciated her laughter at this moment in time.

"We should get moving. We should try to get to the nearest town by sunrise." Lillian said, trying to be constructive instead of laughing at their present situation, or how she and her sister must resemble drowned rats.

"That's a good idea. There's a village not too far from here." Rick replied, grabbing his bag again, and Lillian's, much to her silent frustration, and set off. Jonathon seemed to notice her chagrin but said nothing to help her, as she stalked O'Connell, mumbling threats under her breath. This was becoming a routine, Jonathon thought, his sister stalking after O'Connell after he does something to annoy her.

When they arrived in the village, it was daylight, and market stalls were opened and children were running around, playing without a care in the world. The women of the village saw the group arriving, and rushed over to Evy and Lillian, pulling them away and hurrying them to a tent where they could get dressed. They weren't covered up enough to be seen by men, especially not in this village. Lillian managed to persuade them to clothe them for half the price they would normally do, so they had enough money for other expenses, but she was confused as to how easy it actually was. When she asked an elderly looking woman, as the others began to dress Evy and Lillian, as to why they were so willing to let them pay half for the clothes, the woman's reply confused her.

"We would do anything for you, Meritaten." She had replied in Arabic.

Lillian stared at the woman, wondering why she had called her Meritaten, but soon her attention was brought to the beautiful clothes she was now wearing. Evy had been given a tightly fitted gold Bedouin dress, which suited her rather nicely. Lillian, however, was dressed in a beautiful black crop top that stopped just beneath her breasts, and a matching skirt that flowed down to her ankles, with a slit all the way up to her upper thigh on the right side. A thin, see-through, black veil was tied around her face and draped atop her head as well, as she slipped her dainty feet into long black boots that ended below her knees. Lillian strapped her knife holster back onto her thigh, the skirt hid it from view, and she decided to simply hold her guns for now.

Evy and Lillian thanked the women and left the tent, finding that Rick and Jonathon had already purchased the camels and had one for each of them. The two men pulled the animals behind them, not seeing the women yet and continued their conversation.

"You probably could've got them for free. All you had to do was give him one of your sisters." Lillian heard Rick say, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yes. Awfully tempting, wasn't it?"

That was the moment Rick noticed the two women approaching them. First, he saw Evy and he noted how prettier she was when she wasn't moaning or whining about losing all of her belongings. And then his eyes lapsed onto Lillian. He was stunned for a moment. She looked like a vision in an all black outfit that fit her perfectly and subtly accentuated her curves and he noted just how in shape she was when he noticed her toned stomach that was on show. He caught her smiling at his stare, but he carried on regardless.

"Awfully." Rick finally replied, patting the camel closest to him on the nose.

Lillian carried on walking towards him, smirking. She knew that her new outfit had not escaped his notice, and was quite enjoying the attention she was receiving from him.

"Aren't you glad you didn't follow through with bartering me away, O'Connell?" She asked, as she took one of the reins from him, and expertly climbed onto the camel. Rick shook his head at her playful flirting, and strapped her duffel bag on the camel's back.

"If I tried, you'd probably kill me, so yeah."

"I think you're trying to paint me as a violent person, Mr O'Connell! And I resent that very-" Lillian cut herself off with her own laughter, and Rick laughed along with her. After last night, they both knew she had a violent streak. "Oh, it feels so good to laugh."

"I like it. Your laugh. It's a, uh, it's a good laugh." Rick complimented her, stumbling over his words. She could tell that in spite of his good looks, and charm, he was still unsure when it came to showing affection or trying to compliment a woman.

"Why thank you, Mr O'Connell. It was my mother's," Lillian joked, watching him as he mounted his own camel, not speaking again until his camel had risen to it's feet. She looked around, and saw that her siblings and the smelly prison warden were all waiting to set off. "Well let's get moving. We've got to beat Mr O'Connell's friend and those bloody cowboys to Hamunaptra or I'll never forgive myself."

As if sensing she was ready to move, the camel set off at a brisk pace, leaving the others behind listening to Lillian's laughter and racing to catch up with her.


	4. City of the Dead and Chambers of Death

Jonathon was beginning to grate on Lillian's nerves. They'd been riding for hours and Lillian was getting bored. Her only entertainment was discussing weapons and fighting styles with O'Connell as they rode side by side. Evy was just behind them, with Jonathon next, and the prison warden last. She was enjoying her conversation, but Jonathon was really beginning to tick Lillian off.

It was hot, it was dry, and there was nothing around but sand.

So the last thing Lillian wanted to hear - for the third time, might she add - was Jonathon complaining about his dislike of camels.

"Never did like camels," Lillian sighed, and bit her tongue so she wouldn't shout at her brother as he began his rant again. "Filthy buggers. They smell, they bite, they spit. Disgusting."

"I think they're adorable." Evy said, leaning forward in her seat to rub the top of her camel's head. Rick saw Lillian's sour face, and decided to tease her.

"What's your opinion on camels, Lillian?" He said, shooting a cheeky grin in her direction. She narrowed her eyes at him, but couldn't help the smile that spread across her mouth.

"I'm neither a lover or hater of camels. They have both positive and negative qualities about them, therefore I remain indifferent." She replied, diplomatically, smirking at him when she didn't give him the reaction he had wanted.

The warden began to sing an Arabic song, spitting in between verses, and Lillian began to wish that he had ended up with the Americans instead.

Night soon began to show, and Lillian fought with sleep. She had tied her brother and sister's camels to hers so that they would follow on as they slept, leaning against each other. The prison warden was snoring loudly behind them, and O'Connell and Lillian were the only ones awake.

"You should get some sleep." Rick's voice startled her. It had been extremely quiet up until then.

"Not a chance." She replied, stifling a yawn.

"Why not?" He questioned, and she managed to make out him raising an eyebrow at her. How she saw that in the dark was anybody's guess, but maybe it was more instinctual than anything else.

"Wouldn't be polite to sleep and leave you awake alone. Besides, I'd say you need the rest more than I do." She retorted, struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Stop being so stubborn and just get some damn sleep." Rick snapped at her. She glared at him in return, before she snapped back.

"Fine!"

Ten minutes later, Lillian was fast asleep, her head bobbing from side to side before it rested on Rick's shoulder. He looked down at her, noting how peaceful she looked when she was asleep, something he hadn't seen when she was awake. He knew that she was worried about the danger in Hamunaptra, but not for herself, for her brother and sister.

He smiled slightly, before nudging her upright so she didn't tumble off her camel. He was being far too considerate with this woman, more than he had in his life.

The next day, they spotted several dots on the horizon ahead of them. And as the dots moved closer, they began to resemble the all-too familiar shapes of the Americans and Beni. Lillian suddenly felt a buzz of excitement. This is when the adventure kicked in. Crossing the desert was the boring part, until this last leg. This would be fun, she thought, as the Americans came more into focus, and Rick and Beni approached each other on their camels.

"Good morning, my friend." Beni greeted Rick, before they both stopped. Lillian raised an eyebrow at Rick as he pulled his camel round to face west. He just gestured for her to do the same, and was surprised when she did as he asked.

Rick didn't reply to Beni. He simply stared ahead of him, occasionally throwing glances towards Lillian, who always seemed to return them.

"What the hell are we doing?" One of the Americans questioned.

"Patience, my good _barat'm._ Patience." Beni said to him.

"Remember our bet, O'Connell? First one to the city, $500 cash." Another American said. Lillian decided to learn their names after they had entered Hamunaptra. Now, she gave O'Connell a look. She hadn't pegged him for a gambling man like her brother, but now she was more determined than ever to beat the Americans.

"$100 is yours if you help us win that bet." Beni seemed to brighten at the prospect of more money coming his way, and Lillian narrowed her eyes at him. Ever since she first saw him on the boat, she had gotten a bad feeling from him. He was not a good man, not one bit.

"My pleasure. Hey O'Connell…nice camel." Beni said, in an attempt at taunting Rick. Rick just patted his camel on the head, before he spoke quietly aside to his group.

"Get ready for it."

"For what?" Evy questioned, leaning forward so she could see past her sister to show Mr O'Connell her confusion.

"We're about to be shown the way."

The sun rose higher in the sky and then, almost as if the sun had painted it itself, the city of Hamunaptra slowly appeared on the horizon. Lillian watched it with a sense of childlike wonder, and Rick watched her, smiling at her stunned expression.

"It's beautiful." Lillian murmured to herself, as she stared at the magical city with an dumbstruck awe.

"Here we go again." Rick sighed.

And then the gateway of the city appeared, and everyone set off, racing towards the city to win the bet. Rick and Beni were in the lead, with Evy and Lillian not too far behind, both of the sisters spurring their camels on in Arabic.

Lillian watched in amusement as Beni started to whip O'Connell, and in retaliation, Rick grabbed him and threw him off of his camel.

"Now that serves you right." Evy said, as the two sisters passed him.

And then Rick found himself in a Carnahan sister sandwich, as Lillian and Evy rode up on either side of him. Lillian smiled at him, and Rick smiled back, impressed by not only her riding skills but her sister's. Lillian and Evy both spurred the camels on, and quickly overtook O'Connell too. They rode together, faster than before, towards the city, hearing Jonathon whooping and hollering encouragements behind them.

"Wa-hoo!" Lillian whooped in joy, as she and Evy rode up the gateway together and into the city. It was exactly what she had imagined it would be. All stone pillars and sand, but there was so much more mystery to it than that.

The Americans took up a lot of room for their camp, so Rick, the Carnahan's and the prison warden simply made camp at the base of one of the pillars, before they got straight to work. Evy led them over to the statue of Anubis, and gave Rick and Lillian instructions as to what to do, which they did without question. Despite her own historical and archaeological knowledge, Lillian knew she would probably only be helping O'Connell with the heavy lifting. Jonathon was next to useless when it came to actual labor.

"That's the statue of Anubis. Its legs go deep underground. According to Bembridge scholars, that's where we'll find a secret compartment containing the golden Book of Amun-Ra." Evy said, as Lillian helped her push one of the ancient mirrors into the ground. She looked over at Jonathon to see him cleaning the mirror. "Jonathon, you're meant to catch the sun with that."

Evy walked over to help Jonathon position the mirror, and O'Connell strode over to Lillian, grabbing the rolled up pack that was underneath his arm. He stopped just in front of her, and she smiled up at him, as she continued to try and get the right angle.

"So, uh, what are these old mirrors for?"

"Ancient mirrors," Lillian corrected him. If Evy caught him calling them old mirrors, she'd probably skin him alive or bore him to death about the correct terminology. "It's an ancient Egyptian trick. You'll see."

Rick nodded, before pulling the pack out from behind his back.

"Here, this is for you," He held it out to her, and she smiled up at him, but still managed to look confused as she took it from him. "Go ahead. It's something I borrowed off our American brethren. I thought you might like it. You might need it…for when you're…"

He stepped backwards, miming a chiseling action with his hands, before he noticed the warden watching his awkwardness. Lillian was grinning at him, as he asked the warden what he was looking at, before she looked down at the slightly heavy cloth in her hands and slowly opened it. It was a bunch of archaeological field tools. She smiled down at them, before telling herself she'd share them with Evy.

Lillian glanced up, ignoring the warden as he started moaning about bugs, and watched O'Connell swinging down into the cavern they'd located towards the side of Anubis.

After Lillian had managed to get the angle right, they all followed O'Connell down. Lillian had gone down first, and Rick had helped her off the rope, and they smiled up at each other, before moving apart so that Evy could come down. Jonathon and the warden came down last.

"Do you realize that we're standing inside a room that no one has entered in over 3,000 years?" Evy questioned, as the two sisters and Rick glanced about the room. No one answered Evy's question, but Jonathon broke the silence in his own fashion.

"What is that God-awful stench?" He asked, before he sniffed close to the warden as he climbed down the rope and his eyes widened with realisation. "Oh."

Evy walked over to one of the old mirrors and brushed away the cobwebs with her hands, something she knew that her older sister wouldn't do unless she was wearing gloves. Spiders and their webs were one of her sister's only fears, which was strange, because she was an explorer and had been to many places were there are all sorts of spiders.

Evy finished cleaning it off, and then tilted it forwards.

"'And then there was…light'." She said, as all the mirrors began to reflect light into the room.

"Hey, that is a neat trick." Rick said, making Lillian smile slightly, before she realized where they were.

"My God, Evy! It's a _Sah-Netjer_." She informed her sister, who had probably already realized the same thing. This was incredibly exciting. Lillian looked around the room, and tried to push down the strange feeling that she had been in the room before, because it was silly, wasn't it? A room that hadn't been entered in years, and she felt as though she had walked through it just yesterday. That was completely absurd.

"What?" Rick questioned.

"A preparation room." Evy explained, as she walked forwards, taking the tool kit her sister offered to her, without questioning where she had gotten it.

"Preparation for what?"

"For entering the afterlife." Lillian answered Rick's question, putting on a playful, creepy voice as she did so. He eyed her, and then pulled out one of his pistols, as his other hand gripped his lit torch tighter.

"Mummies, my good son. This is where they made the mummies." Jonathon explained to him, in a simpler way, as he lit his own torch with Rick's. They walked forwards until they reach a passageway.

Rick went down it first, and Lillian followed, her two pistols drawn, with Evy, Jonathon and the warden following closely behind. Each man had a lit torch, and the girls stayed between them so they were in constant light.

They all paused when they heard loud skittering noises, with each member of the party practically spinning around to locate the source of the noise. Eventually the sound faded, and Lillian breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't care what the noise had been, as long as it hadn't been spiders.

"What was that?" Jonathon questioned.

"Sounds like…bugs." Rick said, and Lillian felt the urge to club him over the head. Why did he have to say bugs?

"He said bugs." Evy repeated to the two men behind her, which successfully freaked the prison warden out.

"What do you mean, bugs? I hate bugs." He whined, and Lillian felt the same urge to hit him, but with the warden, Lillian felt that urge on a frequent basis. He really was a foul, disgusting human being.

It got darker as they moved - albeit slowly - further into the tunnel. Rick was cautious, as they came to the end of their passageway, and to a new room. Lillian was the same, her eyes scanning what she could see of the room for any threats.

"The legs of Anubis," Evy stated, and Lillian had a bad feeling spread through her as she gazed at the bottom half of the statue. "The secret compartment should be hidden somewhere inside here."

And almost as if that were a cue, all five people heard a noise and then some murmuring that set them on edge. They leaned against the base of Anubis' statue, with Rick and Lillian at the end, Evy now holding Rick's torch, both chambering rounds into their weapons.

Slowly Rick and Lillian jumped out, and were greeted by loud shouts of surprise. The Americans were pointing guns at them, but looked relieved to see it was them.

"You scared the bejesus out of us, O'Connell." Henderson said, as he lowered his two Colt pistols.

"Likewise." Rick replied, as he, Lillian, Jonathon and the warden all lowered their weapons. Mr Burns, however, spotted his tool kit in Evy's arms, and stepped forward.

"Hey! That's my tool kit."

"No, I don't think so." Rick said, as all four raised their weapons, and the Americans followed suit. Burns backed away.

"Okay," He said, as he stared down the barrels of O'Connell's two pistols nervously. "Perhaps I was mistaken."

"I'm certain you are." Lillian said, with a sweet smile.

"A woman with guns. How very original." Lillian glared at the man who had spoken, twisting her body so her guns were trained on him.

"Gentlemen, how badly do you need your Egyptologist?" She questioned, cocking her weapons, and making the man visibly nervous. She smiled at her victory. "Because I may be a woman, but I will not hesitate to pump you full of lead if you even mutter one sexist comment about me again. Just so you know, I tend to favor one region when it comes to shooting men."

She let her eyes trail down the man, before lifting them back up. Every single man around her flinched, or winced, at her implications, and Rick shook his head at her. He was liking this woman more and more with every word she said.

Evy sensed that the situation was getting sour so quickly jumped in with her diplomatic tendencies.

"Have a nice day, gentlemen. We have a lot of work to be getting along with."

"Push off! This is our dig site." The Egyptologist said and Lillian sighed.

"Do I have to threaten you again?" Lillian asked, as Evy said, "We got here first."

And then everyone raised their weapons again.

"This here's our statue…friend." Daniels said.

"I don't see your name written on it…pal." Rick replied, and Lillian was almost choking on the testosterone flying around as she participated in the near all-male stand off.

"Yes, well there's only five of you, and fifteen of me," Beni said, sounding quite happy he had the better odds. "Your odds are not so great, O'Connell."

"I've had worse." Rick said, aiming one of his pistols threateningly at Beni. What Jonathon said next would have made Lillian and Evy laugh in any other situation, instead they merely raised eyebrows at him in disbelief.

"Me, too." He said. Even O'Connell gave him a disbelieving glance.

"For goodness' sake, let's be nice, children," Evy said, being the voice of reason, as per usual. She stepped in between Rick and Lillian and looked from the Americans back to their guide. Henderson lowered his guns. He wasn't all that comfortable pointing a gun at the lady who was armed, but this one didn't have any protection herself. "If we're going to play together, we must learn to share. There are other places to dig."

Rick nodded, and holstered his pistols, but not before throwing Beni a glare. Lillian wasn't as quick to lower hers, but one disparaging look from Evy, and she rolled her eyes and stepped away from the Americans. She moved next to her sister so she could whisper to her.

"I hope you know what you're doing. Giving this up could be a bad idea." Lillian hissed at her.

"Trust me, Lily. I know what I'm doing." Evy replied, her eyes wide as she verbally and silently requested trust from her elder sister. Lillian sighed and nodded, to which Evy replied with a smile, taking her sister's hand and leading her to the next site they would dig, with O'Connell, their brother and the prison warden following them.

"According to these hieroglyphics we're underneath the statue," Evy announced, as Rick and Lillian hammered away at the ceiling above them. "We should come up right between his legs."

"And when those damn Yanks go to sleep…no offence…" Jonathon said, trailing off to allow Rick to accept his apology. Rick looked backwards at the Carnahan man, rolling his eyes before he focused back on the task at hand. Lillian swung her hammer at the ceiling, chipping some of the stone away, whilst wondering why her brother wasn't doing this instead of her.

"None taken." Rick said, gritting his teeth as he took another swing.

"…we'll dig our way up and steal the book right from under them." Jonathon said, handing Rick the hammer he was waiting for, and took the larger one from him. Lillian dropped hers beside Jonathon, and accepted one of the smaller digging tools from Evy, and began scraping away at some of the debris above her head.

"Are you sure we can find this secret compartment thing?" Rick questioned, looking at Lillian for the answer as he stuck the claw of the hammer up into the roof above their heads.

"Yes, if those bloody Americans haven't beaten us to it. No offence." She said, tacking on the last part so he knew she wasn't including him in her insult.

"None taken." He grunted, as he tried to pull the hammer free again. Sand was starting to trickle down which could only be a good sign. Rick covered his face with a small scarf as the sand began to rain down in thicker streams.

"Say, where did our smelly little friend get to?" Jonathon asked, after he'd scanned the room searching for the prison warden.

"Hm…I don't know. I imagine he hasn't gone far," Lillian said, as she sat down on the stand she'd been balancing on. "Let's take a break."

"So let me get this straight, they ripped out your guts and they stuffed them in jars." Rick said, though it was more of a question than a statement. He was needing confirmation.

"Then they'd take out your heart as well. Oh, and do you know how they took out your brains?" Evy questioned, and when Rick shook his head, Lillian grinned and took over from her younger sister. She'd get more enjoyment out of it.

"Evy, I don't think we need to know this." Jonathon remarked, as he used one of the sledgehammers to practice his golf swing. Jonathon was always the more squeamish of the three Carnahan's, and Evy and Lillian loved to tease him about that fact.

"They'd take a sharp, red-hot poker, stick it up your nose, scramble things about a bit and then rip it our through your nostrils." Lillian explained the method, not realizing that her hand was doing the action with the chisel she was holding. Then she looked at Rick, and saw his hand hovering over his nose, and set her off sniggering.

"That must hurt." He said, after she'd stopped laughing at him.

"It's mummification. You're dead when they do it." Evy replied, as Lillian patted his hand that was resting on his knee, still somewhat giggling at him, but managing to try and reassure him at the same time.

"For the record, if I don't make it out of here, don't put me down for mummification." Rick said, looking towards Lillian as he did so.

"Do you want me to put that down in writing?" Lillian teased him, before she jumped back as a large, heavy rectangular box fell from the ceiling after Jonathon whacked it with the hammer. Of course, it would be Jonathon to nearly bring down the roof on top of them.

Lillian rose shakily to her feet, not knowing that Rick was behind here, ready to steady her. Evy was coughing as there was a lot of dust and sand up in the air, before they both realized what it was.

"Oh, my God. It's a…it's a sarcophagus." Evy said.

Lillian tilted her head back, and looked up to see the gaping hole where the sarcophagus had dropped down from. She could just make out the base of the statue of Anubis, and then she looked back down at the sarcophagus in front of her.

"Buried at the base of Anubis." Lillian informed her sister, and the two men. Evy glanced up before she shared a look with her elder sister.

"He must have been someone of great importance." Evy deduced, as she stared across at her sister.

"Or he did something very naughty." Lillian added.

O'Connell looked between the two women, who were wearing the exact same curious expression, before he turned to Jonathon.

"Are they always like this?" He questioned.

"What? The whole finish-the-other's-thought-thing? Yeah, but you'll get used to it, old chap!" Jonathon said, grinning at the American.

"Are they twins or something?"

"I'm older than Evy by a year." Lillian replied, not looking up at the pair as she began dusting off the sand and debris with one of the brushes in the tool kit. Rick helped her, blowing and wiping the dust away.

"Well? Who is it?" Jonathon asked, walking round to see the hieroglyphic that they had uncovered. Evy did the same, and she translated it and told him before Lillian could even open her mouth to speak.

"'He That Shall Not Be Named'." Evy informed them.

Rick exchanged a look with Lillian, before he bent his head to blow the sand away from what he thought was the lock. He pointed at it a couple of times, shaking his hand as he did so.

"This looks like some sort of a lock." O'Connell said, and Lillian ran her fingers around the shape of it, wondering where the key could possibly be, and wondering why the outline of the lock looked so familiar.

"Whoever's in here sure wasn't getting out." She said.

"No kidding. It'll take a month to crack into this thing without a key." Rick informed them, and Lillian sighed. A key?

"A key?" Evy voiced Lillian's thought, and they stared at each other, both realizing at the same time.

"A key!" They exclaimed in unison.

"A key! That's what he was talking about!" Evy continued, bending down and digging into Jonathon's pack.

She rooted around for a few moments before she found her prize and held it aloft slightly to showcase it to her brother and O'Connell. Lillian grinned at her sister. Sometimes, it amazed her how in sync they were at times, and sometimes it annoyed her. Her sister knew her far too well, and somehow knew what she was thinking even at the most inappropriate of times.

"Who was talking about what?" Rick questioned, not understanding the thought processes of the two women. He looked at Jonathon who looked equally confused.

"The man on the barge in our room. The one with the hook. He was looking for a key." Lillian explained, as Evy opened up Jonathon's puzzle box.

"Hey, that's mine!" He complained, pointing at it.

Lillian moved out of her sister's way, nudging O'Connell so he moved over a little bit, but he didn't move much, forcing Lillian to be practically pressed up against him. She rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the burn of her cheeks.

Evy flipped the puzzle box over, so the opened lid was facing down, and placed it slowly on top of the lock. A perfect fit. Lillian and Evy beamed at each other, before they heard screaming. Lillian and Rick pulled out a pistol each from their holsters, before they raced to find their 'friend' the warden, who was hollering at the top of his lungs.

They found him, but couldn't see anything wrong with him as he clutched his head, screeching in pain. Lillian moved forward to examine him, but he shoved her out of the way and darted forward. They were forced to watch as he ran down the passageway, before he sprinted head-first into a wall, killing him instantly. Lillian winced, and pulled a stunned Evy into her arms, as they continued to stare in horror at the now dead fifth member of their party.


	5. Leave or Die!

Evy, Lillian and Jonathon were huddled, in the darkness of night, around the fire O'Connell had made, before he went off to collect his money from the Americans. Evy was sat between her elder siblings, with a shawl wrapped around her for warmth and comfort. Lillian was quiet, which wasn't so unusual for her, but Evy and Jonathon both picked up on it.

"What do you suppose killed him?" Evy questioned.

"Did you ever see him eat?" Jonathon replied. Lillian looked up as Rick sat down beside her, shot gun in hand. She raised an eyebrow at him, but he simply shrugged.

"Seems that our American friends had a little misfortune of their own today," He said, putting the gun down in front of him. "Three of their diggers were…melted."

"What?" Evy asked at the same time that Jonathon questioned, "How?".

"Salt acid. Pressurized salt acid. Some kind of ancient booby trap." Rick answered.

"Maybe this place really is cursed." Jonathon said, just before a soft gush of wind blew through their little camp in the eeriest way possible, almost blowing out their campfire. Rick and Jonathon exchanged a look, and Lillian slapped Rick on the arm.

"For goodness' sake, you two!"

"You don't believe in curses?" Rick asked, as he poked the fire to keep it going.

"No, I don't know what I believe." Lillian replied.

"We believe, being the sensible women we are, that if we can see it and touch it, it's real." Evy insisted and explained for her sister, as she watched Lillian sink back into her own private world once more, a contemplative expression gracing her face.

"I believe in being prepared." Rick said, as he chambered a round into his shotgun, making Evy jump with the noise it made.

"Let's see what our friend the warden believed in." Jonathon said, as he picked up the man's bag, and began to rummage through his belongings. Lillian rolled her eyes; Jonathon really had no respect for the dead.

The group was silent as the Carnahan man rifled through the pack of a dead man, until suddenly Jonathon cried out in pain, setting them all on edge. He yelped in pain, making Evy scream, and Rick and Lillian aim their guns at the bag in his hand.

"What?!" Rick demanded as Lillian questioned, "What is it?!".

"Just a broken bottle," Jonathan answered, lifting the aforementioned broken bottle from the bag, and inspecting it. "Glenlivet. Twelve years old! Well, he may have been a stinky fellow, but he had good taste."

Jonathon knocked back a gulp of the alcohol, and Evy smiled at her brother's humour. However, the distant whinnying of multiple horses set Rick and Lillian on edge. The woman climbed to her feet, instantly moving towards the sound, with the man following her, but not before he had given the two remaining siblings his shotgun for protection. Lillian recognised her sister's voice not too far behind her and Rick, asking them to wait for her, and then Jonathon calling her back, only for him to follow as well.

And then they arrived, hollering like mad men upon black and white horses. And all hell broke loose. It was a scene that felt familiar to Lillian; the men in black, the mayhem, the gunfire, the screaming and shouting. It was all familiar, as was Lillian's reaction. She whipped out her pistols, and began to systematically take the invaders out, one by one. These raiders had rifles, and torches and were setting fire to the Americans' tents. Lillian and Rick sought out cover behind one of the many pillars, her on one side and him on another. They worked as a team, and found that they worked quite well together.

Even Evy managed to shoot a man off his horse. Lillian was quite proud of her baby sister in that moment. Jonathon stayed crouched behind a wall, sipping on the whisky he'd found in the warden's satchel, and occasionally firing at one of the raiders.

Lillian focused on shooting as many of the black riders as she could, before she heard Jonathon shouting for Rick. She turned, putting her back to the pillar, and spotted Jonathon running from one of the riders. Rick nodded at her once, before he dived off of the higher ground that they had situated themselves on and tackled the rider off of his stallion.

Lillian kept firing and taking men out, but her eyes flickered constantly to the fight Rick had found himself in. He had shot the man's blade from his hand, but got distracted by another, and then found his pistol knocked out of his hand. So he dove into a roll, and lit a stick of dynamite, and brandished it against the raider, who paused upon seeing it and straightened up out of his defensive pose.

"Enough!" He called, and his men stopped fighting against them. Lillian still had her pistols raised, even though her ammunition had just run out. "We will shed no more blood, but you must leave. Leave this place or die. You have one day."

And then he remounted his horse, and rode away, just as quickly as he and his men had arrived. Rick stopped the flame on the dynamite, before it exploded in his hand. And then Rick rushed to Lillian, who had slumped to the ground, a hand pressed to her side.

"Are you all right?" He questioned, as he helped her to her feet. O'Connell then tugged her hand away from her side, and saw a little blood. He raised his eyes to hers and she smiled at him, not appearing to be in much pain.

"I'm fine. It's just a graze." And his eyes confirmed that. He'd dress it in a moment, with some medical supplies he'd managed to barter from a woman back in the village they had stopped at.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He said, pulling her chin up so she'd look directly into his eyes. Then he rubbed some dirt of her cheek gently, so gently it almost felt like a caress. Which it was, but they pretended it wasn't.

"Thank you." She replied, her hands on his chest, careful not to smear blood on his white shirt.

"That proves it. Old Seti's fortune has got to be under this sand," Daniels said, getting the attention of most around him. "For them to protect it like this, there's got to be treasure down there."

"Or maybe they're protecting us." Lillian said, earning quizzical looks from all the men around her. She hadn't believed in the curse, until today. What with the unexplainable death of the warden, the general bad feeling that the city filled her with, and the reappearance of the tattooed men in black robes, she wasn't exactly sure that a curse was so farfetched anymore.

"Or they know there's treasure down there." Henderson insisted.

"These men are desert people," Rick informed them, his arms still around Lillian, hers still on his chest. They didn't realise their close proximity. "They value water, not gold."

"You know, maybe just at night we could combine forces?" Mr Burns suggested, and Lillian turned her eyes to him as he stood just behind Rick, and saw that he had been halfway through shaving when they were attacked.

Lillian looked at Rick, nodding at him and allowing him to deal with it. She moved away, untangling herself from him, and walked over to Evy and Jonathon. She examined each of her siblings in turn, checking them over for injuries, ignoring their protests until she was satisfied they were in one piece.

Evy gasped when she spotted Lillian's tiny surface wound.

"You're hurt!" She exclaimed, and Jonathon got a little concerned, and crouched down to inspect it closer. It wasn't bleeding any more, but it would need to be cleaned as it had a little sand in the wound.

"I'm fine, baby sister. It's just a scratch. Nothing to worry about," She said, as Rick strode over to them. She gestured her thumb at him as he stopped beside her and started to reassure her sister. "O'Connell is going to clean it and I'll place a bandage from my pack over it. I'll be fine."

Evy seemed placated with her sister's reassurance, and they went back to camp to calm themselves down after all of the excitement. It may have taken a drink or two to convince Lillian to actually let Rick clean her wound, and dress it, but she, Jonathon and Evy were soon drunk. O'Connell had refused to join in their drinking, and was a little surprised that Lillian had. He hadn't pegged her as the type, nor her sister, but he figured that she was stressed.

After a little while, Jonathon and Evy were snuggled up together, the bottle of whisky tucked into the curve of Jonathon's arm as he and his youngest sister slept peacefully. Somehow, though not really surprisingly, the topic of combat had come up between Rick and Lillian, and the latter had admitted to not being very good at hand to hand fighting. So O'Connell ended up hauling the drunken woman to her feet and guiding her into a fighting stance. She picked it up quite well, especially for someone so inebriated.

"Tough stuff, try a right hook. Ball up your fist and put it up like that," He said, moving her fists into position for her, and chuckled at how hard she was trying not to laugh. He could see it in her smile, and the way she was biting her bottom lip that she was containing giggles. "Then mean it. Hit it here."

He gestured to his palm, and Lillian nodded, with a laugh.

"I mean it!" She said, swinging her arm, and managing to hit his hand, before she toppled forwards with the momentum of her fist, and giggling as he caught her in his arms. Lillian carried on giggling as Rick helped her to sit down, sitting behind her and smiling at how care-free she seemed.

"Okay, it's time for another drink." He said.

"Unlike my brother, sir…" Lillian said, as she stole the near empty bottle from her brother's arms, and continued to speak before . "I know when to say no."

Lillian took a large gulp of the whisky, barely noticing the burn in her throat as it slid down. Rick watched her in amusement as she contradicted herself.

"And unlike your brother and sister, miss…you, I just don't get." Rick said to her, and caught her grin.

"I know," She said, replacing the bottle back into Jonathon's free arm, before she continued talking. "You're wondering, what is a place like us doing in a family like this?"

"Yeah, something like that." Rick replied, as they both shifted to face each other.

"Egypt is in our blood. You see, my father…" Lillian said, as she reached to her neck and pulled on the little gold chain that had been hanging around it this whole time. Her fingers, though slightly clumsy, managed to prise open the small locket on the end of the chain, and she held it out to him, moving even closer so she didn't have to bend forward. They were so close that their hair was brushing each other's foreheads. "…my father was a famous explorer and he loved Egypt so much, he married my mother, who was an Egyptian…and quite an adventurer herself."

Rick's eyes would flicker up from the two people immortalised in the tiny photographs in her locket to the woman herself every few seconds as she very willingly opened her life up to him. She was never usually this forthcoming. It's one of the reasons that she was still a mystery to him.

"I get your father, and I get your mother…and I get them," Rick said, letting her necklace fall back against her chest, as he pointed at her unconscious siblings. "But what are you doing here?"

"I already told you-" Lillian started, but Rick cut her off.

"Yeah, but there's more to it then just being here for your brother and sister. Why are you here?" He asked, and he was surprised when Lillian climbed, albeit a little wobbly, to her feet and glared down at him, and began to rant.

"I'm here…because I needed this. The thrill of the adventure…of the find. I needed to do something more than just explore the globe…to make myself proud of what I am." She said, not noticing how his hands had hovered sometimes and stilled her at others as she wobbled in place through her speech.

"And what is that?" He questioned, staring up at her.

"I…am…I don't actually know myself," She said, dropping to her knees with a giggle. And he smiled unsure at her as she scooted a little closer to him. "Sorry to disappoint you…Mr O'Connell, but I am just as much…of a mystery to myself as I am…to you. And now I am going to kiss you, Mr O'Connell."

"Call me Rick." He said, calmly, though his heart rate elevated slightly as her head moved closer to his and he could smell the oddly sweet smell of her skin. How had she managed to still smell nice and clean through days in the desert?

"Oh, Rick." She smiled, before she placed a soft kiss on his mouth. When she pulled away, she rested her head against his shoulder and instantly fell asleep. Rick manoeuvred her so she was laying across one of the blankets they'd been sat on, and brushed one of her dark waves off of her face, tucking it behind her ear.

'Well, she probably won't remember that tomorrow,' Rick thought, sighing as he resigned himself to taking the first watch. He'd already agreed with the other Americans that they'd take shifts just in case the desert men came back as they slept. Henderson would relieve him in a couple of hours. So he reloaded his pistols, and holstered them, before poking the fire so it wouldn't die out.


	6. The Black Book and The Bringer of Death

Lillian woke up with a pounding headache as the bright Egyptian sun made it impossible for her to sleep any longer. She blinked rapidly as she tried to grow accustomed to her awakening, and then she sat up, almost banging heads with O'Connell as he moved to wake her, but he managed to move back just in time.

"How's your head?" Rick asked her, placing one hand on the side of her face so he could look into her bleary eyes.

"Fantastic, thank you for asking." She said, sarcastically, grabbing her head on the other side and wincing as she heard the ruckus the Americans were making as they prepared for the day's work. Rick just chuckled at her, before he stood up and held a hand out to her. She glared at it for a second, before slipping her dainty hand into it, and allowing him to heave her to her feet.

She muttered a thank you, afraid that anything louder would hurt her head. Lillian then decided to reload the ammo in her guns as she hadn't last night, before she very gently - and by gently, we're talking kicking slightly harder than she really should have - woke her brother up, who in turn brought Evy back to the world of the conscious. Rick just watched the family interact with each other, hiding his sniggering under weak coughs. Lillian raised an eyebrow at the American, but he just smiled at her in return. She shook her head, and replaced her guns into their holsters on her shoulders, before checking the sharpness of her knife. It was still sharp so she didn't have to sharpen it again.

After grabbing the 'borrowed' tool kit Rick had given her, she stood up again, and glanced around at her three companions.

"Shall we get to work?" She questioned, with a smile, before walking off in the direction of their dig site without waiting for a reply.

Rick looked at the frowning Carnahan siblings as they watched Lillian walk away.

"How is she all peppy and ready to go?" Jonathon questioned.

"It's called acting. She's suffering just as much as you are," Rick replied, as he helped Evelyn to her feet. He noticed that the younger Carnahan sister looked still half-asleep, so he reached into his pack and gave her his canteen. "Here, drink some of this. It's fresh so it should wake you up a bit."

She thanked him and took a large gulp of the water, before handing it back to him. She realised that Lillian had taken the tool kit, so hurried after her sister, with O'Connell and Jonathon on her heels.

Evy watched gleefully as Lillian, Jonathon and O'Connell lifted the sarcophagus and pushed it up against a wall, so it was standing.

"I've dreamt of this since I was a little girl." Evy said, as she moved closer.

"You dream about dead guys?" Rick questioned, giving the younger Carnahan a weird look, until Lillian elbowed him lightly in the ribs. He pretended to wince and she held in a giggle, and then she noticed something strange about the sarcophagus.

"Look, the sacred spells have been chiselled off. This man must've been condemned in this life and the next. He must've been very naughty." Lillian explained, as her fingers hovered over the damaged area of the sarcophagus.

"Tough break." Rick said.

"Yes, I'm all tears," Jonathon said, sarcastically as he opened the key and put it in the lock and started to twist it. "Now, let's see who's inside. Shall we?"

Lillian and Evy stepped back, and waited while the men struggled to pull the lid off. Lillian noticed Evy fidgeting in excitement and smiled, before turning her attention back to the sarcophagus at exactly the wrong moment. The lid clattered to the ground and the mummy almost jumped forward, an ancient scream still stuck in its throat. All four screamed in surprise, before they managed to calm themselves down. Lillian held a hand against her heart, making sure her heart rate slowed down to its normal tempo.

"I hate it when these things do that." Evy hissed, slightly angry that she had been scared again by another mummy popping out at her. At least, this time Jonathon had been scared too.

"Is he supposed to look like that?" Rick questioned, as he stared at the dead guy in front of him. Lillian inspected it as well, noting that it was far more…gooey than it should have been after all these years.

"I've never seen a mummy look like this before. He's still…well…" Evy trailed off trying to find the right word, so the men supplied her with one that worked well in Lillian's opinion.

"Juicy." Rick and Jon said in unison.

"Well, yes." Evy agreed.

"He must be more than 3,000 years old and it looks as if he's still decomposing. Which should be impossible. He should be nothing more than a slightly dusty skeleton." Lillian summarised, as she gazed at the mummy, wondering why he was still, as the boys put it, juicy. Something was wrong here.

"Look at that," Rick said, pointing at the lid of the sarcophagus, moving towards it and kneeling down next to it. There were scratches all over the lid. Clearly the man had wanted out. "What do you think of this?"

Evy and Lillian dropped down on either side of the lid, Lillian next to Rick, and ran their fingers over the ridges of the indentations.

"God, these marks were made with fingernails," Evy said, as she dragged her own fingers along a set of the scratches. "This man was buried alive. And he left a message."

Lillian ran her fingers across the ancient Egyptian text as she read it aloud in English.

"'Death is only the beginning'." She exchanged a worried glance with Rick, who, though he didn't quite understand why he was worried, looked just as nervous as she was. All four of the company lifted their heads and stared at the gooey, nameless mummy who clearly had done something terrible in order to deserve being buried alive at the base of Anubis.

Lillian didn't quite understand why, but while she stared at him, a feeling of familiarity washed over her. She couldn't explain it, but she felt as if she knew the mummy, which was impossible, of course. Lillian shook her head and stood up, gaining the attention of the other three in her party. She walked over to the tool kit and grabbed the sketch pad and pencils she had purchased from a vendor back at the village a few days ago.

Rick watched the eldest Carnahan sister as she sat back beside him and began to sketch everything she saw; the scratches on the lid, the creepy message, and then the juicy mummy. She was very detailed, and very talented.

"I did have a camera to capture evidence of all this, but it was lost on the boat, so sketches will have to do for now." Lillian said, as she passed her drawings to Evy, who gratefully took them and inspected her sister's accuracy.

"Is there anything you can't do?" Rick questioned, not realising he had asked the question aloud. Lillian smirked at him, before answering his question.

"I can't touch the tip of my tongue to the bottom of my nose. I saw a man do it once, but I think he had an abnormally long tongue." She joked, grinning at the American, as he shook his head at her jesting.

Evy and Jonathon exchanged a look, both noticing how open and comfortable Lillian was around their guide. Lillian never behaved this way with men she had only just met, which led her siblings to believe that there was something between her and O'Connell. Maybe there was.

They'd stopped working for the night, but Lillian had gone back inside to inspect the area where the warden had died. She didn't understand why he had died, and that frustrated her. There was nothing around that gave any indication as to what had happened to the pig of a man, so she decided to have another look at the sarcophagus instead. And she found something interesting. She carried her find back through the tunnels, and to their camp, but passed the Egyptologist on her way. He had a familiar looking book in his hands. It wasn't the Book of Amun-Ra, the book of the living, but a black book that was similar to what she had pictured the gold book to be like. He was struggling to open it, and then she spied a familiar looking lock. That's when the man caught her staring.

"I think you need a key to open that book." Lillian said simply, before she carried on her way back to the camp.

She approached the camp and saw the Americans had joined her group, and Beni had seated himself in her spot between Rick and her sister.

"Look what I found!" She said, announcing her presence.

"You're in her seat," Rick said to Beni, though the weedy, smelly man initially thought his old friend was kidding, until he caught O'Connell's glare. "Now!"

"Scarab skeletons, flesh-eaters," Lillian said, holding them out slightly in her hands so the Americans had a good view as well, as she sat in her spot. Evy took a couple so Jonathon could see better, and Rick nudged one on Lillian's hand to make sure it was really dead. "I found them inside our friend's coffin."

"They can stay alive for years feasting on the flesh of a corpse. Unfortunately for our friend, he would have been still alive when they started eating him." Evy explained, as Jonathon played with one in his hand.

"So somebody threw these in with our guy, and then they slowly ate him alive?" Rick questioned, holding one aloft, as he looked at Lillian for answers.

"Very slowly. It would have been a very violent, very painful death." She answered, handing the rest of them to Evy, who gleefully inspected them. Then Lillian poked the fire to keep it going.

"He sure wasn't a popular guy when they planted him." Jonathon summarised, in a way that only Jonathon could.

"He probably got a little too frisky with the Pharaoh's daughter." Rick said, with a smirk.

"Or his mistress." Lillian added, as she chuckled at the American's words. Evy also laughed at O'Connell, before she went on to inform them of some of the information she had acquired.

"According to my readings, our friend suffered the Hom-Dai, the worst of all ancient Egyptian curses, one reserved only for the most evil of blasphemers. In all of my research, I've never heard of this curse having actually been performed." Evy said, though Lillian's attention had been lost to the three Americans opposite her, holding the three ornate canopic entopic jars. She rose from her seat as Evy continued to explain to Rick all about the Hom-Dai curse, and sat next to Henderson. He gave her a look, and she pointed at his jar.

"Did your Egyptologist explain what that is?" She questioned.

"Yeah, he said that it was one of those embalming jars. Has the guts of some dead guy in it." Henderson said, nodding at the same time.

"Did you get it from a box?" Lillian questioned, though she wasn't sure how she knew that there was a box to begin with. She just had a feeling.

"Yeah. A black one with some fake curse on it."

Lillian blinked at him, before she smiled.

"Well just hope that no one wakes up our guy. Otherwise, you, my friends, are toast. Maybe literally." She said, standing up and moving back to her original seat.

Evy had just finished explaining that should a victim of the Hom-Dai ever arise, he would bring the ten plagues of Egypt. Lillian gave her a look before she remembered the Egyptologist and his new possession.

"I think the Egyptologist found the book, but it's not the gold book. I think he found the Book of the Dead. Fitting as we're in the City of the Dead." Lillian said, informing her sister that her dream of finding the Book of Amun-Ra wasn't going to be happening anytime soon. Evy looked slightly annoyed at the fact the pretentious snob of a man had beaten her to the real find, but then a mischievous look crossed her face and Lillian didn't need a mind reader to know she was planning something.

And Lillian didn't have to wait too long before her suspicions were confirmed. She was lying on the other side of O'Connell, attempting to sleep, when she heard movement. She didn't need to open her eyes to know it was her sister. The footsteps moved away from camp, before they stopped for a moment and came back again.

"That's called stealing, you know." O'Connell said to her sister, his eyes still closed, and his shotgun still in hand. Lillian pushed herself upright, and looked at him first. He had known she wasn't asleep, but knew she needed to rest so didn't bother trying to make conversation. But now she was wide awake, and watching him with dark eyes that captured his attention all the time, until they were gone and had moved to her sister.

"According to you and my brother, it's called borrowing." Evy replied, as she burrowed through Jonathon's jacket to get the key.

Both Lillian and Rick moved towards Evy as she began fiddling with the key, getting it to open.

"I thought the Book of Amun-Ra was made out of gold." Rick said, as he eyed the book that the youngest Carnahan had stolen. Lillian sat on Evy's left, looking over her shoulder, while Rick gazed over Evy's right side.

"It is made out of gold." Lillian said.

"This isn't the Book of Amun-Ra. This is something else. I think this may be the Book of the Dead." Evy explained to him, but it didn't make him any less confused. Lillian saw this but waited until he had actually asked the question before helping him.

"The Book of the Dead? Should you be playing around with it?" He questioned, and Lillian found herself agreeing with him. Was it really wise to play about with a book that almost beckoned not to be read by anyone. Ever.

Evy placed the key over the lock and start to twist it around.

"It's just a book. No harm ever came from…" She paused slightly as the book snapped open. Lillian fought against the urge to snap it closed just as quickly as it had opened. "…reading a book."

As Evy lifted the heavy cover, a gust of wind rushed through the camp, and Lillian and Rick exchanged nervous glances.

"That happens a lot around here," Rick said, though Lillian knew he was using humour to hide his discomfort. "So what's it say?"

"'Amun-Ra. Amun-Dai'. It speaks of the night and of the day." Evy said, before she continued reading it in ancient Egyptian, her fingers tracing her progress. Lillian was filled with dread and unease as Evy neared the end. As Evy finished, a loud animal-like screech filled the air and woke up everyone in camp.

"No! You must not read from the book!" The Egyptologist shouted at Evy, though it was too late.

Lillian felt the shift in the wind, and heard something travelling towards them. It even woke Jonathon, which was a testament to how loud it must have been, because Jonathon could sleep through a thunderstorm.

Everyone was now standing, waiting and watching for whatever was heading towards them. Rick had his shotgun in hand, and Lillian had drawn one of her handguns, but they were frozen as they watched a dark cloud move fast towards them.

That was, they were frozen until it became clear that they had to run. Rick grabbed Lillian's free hand, and Jonathon grabbed hold of Evy as they turned and ran away from the dark, large, deadly locust swarm.

Rick led them into the tunnels that led underground, away from the swarm, and grabbed a lit torch so they could move through the darkness. Evy and Lillian were in the middle with Jonathon at the back of the group with another torch.

Though as they moved down one of the tunnels, it suddenly jolted, and part of the floor rose up. Lillian and the others stared at it in horror, when suddenly hundreds of deadly scarab beetles spilled from the mound of sand, noisy and beautiful though Lillian and Evy quickly pulled the men backwards.

"Scarabs!" Evy yelled, as they turned again and ran in the opposite direction.

"Run, Evy! Lillian!" Jonathon pushed his sisters in front of him, and urged them forward as they tore down the passageway with O'Connell just seconds behind them.

"Go, go! Run!" He yelled at them, as the scarabs followed them. Rick threw his torch at them, making a hole in their advancement that was quickly reformed, and began to blow some of them to pieces with his shotgun.

The scarabs forced them to run up a bridge, which Jonathon, Rick and Evy quickly jumped off to the left and onto a safe pillar that was separate, meaning the scarabs couldn't get them. Lillian, however, jumped right and leaned against a wall as she watched the bloodthirsty beetles scuttle onwards, looking for the next available target to devour. Until, suddenly, the wall was no longer behind her, and she fell backwards with a yelp into more darkness.

And soon the scarabs had all disappeared, and Rick looked around and noticed that Lillian was no longer with them.

"Lillian?" He called.

"Lily?" Jonathon questioned, listening for a reply from somewhere.

"She had just been standing right across from us!" Evy exclaimed, scared for her missing sister.

"Where is she now?" Rick asked, though it was more to himself. No one had any answers.

It was dark in the tunnel Lillian was now lying in. She glanced around, breathing hard mostly because she was winded from falling backwards and because she was slightly afraid. She heard a groan, and peaked around the wall she had braced herself against. Mr. Burns was stood there, so she stood up and walked to him.

"Burns. Thank God. I thought I was alone down here. I got separated from everyone. I-" Lillian rambled, as she approached him, seeming to not hear the pained groans that emitted from his chest, until he turned around. She gasped, and stepped back, as Mr Burns stood before her, with his eyes missing from their sockets.

"My eyes. My eyes." He said, though it came out less clearer.

She turned around and screamed as the mummy stood behind her and growled at her. She walked backwards, as it stalked towards her. In her fear of it, she had completely forgotten the two pistols holstered on her shoulders and the knife strapped to her thigh. She just kept stumbling backwards until it had her backed against a wall with no way of escaping.

She didn't bother asking Mr. Burns for help, he was already crawling away, crying about the loss of his tongue. Mr Burns did draw the mummy's attention for a brief moment, but it soon turned back round to face her, gazing at her with Mr. Burns' stolen eyes.

"Anck-su-namun?" He questioned, and Lillian just stared at him in confusion, before she decided that trying to escape would be better than trying to work out the mind of a 3000 year old mummy who was calling her names.

She kept her eyes on it as she moved along the wall, and he followed her, moving closer as he did so.

"Come with me my Princess Anck-su-namun." He said to her, in ancient Egyptian, and she shook her head at the hand he held out to her. She had understood what he had said, but she had no intentions of following him.

Thankfully, she soon heard heavy footsteps and the familiar American drawl of her newest favourite person in the world. O'Connell bounded towards her, scolding her for getting separated from the group, not noticing the mummy yet.

"There you are! Stop playing hide-and-seek. Come on, let's get out of here." He said, grabbing her hand, ready to drag her away, but he soon realised that she wasn't looking at him and hadn't even acknowledged his words. He followed her gaze and shouted out in surprise.

"Lily?" Jonathon called, distracting the mummy as he bounded into the room and then stopped suddenly, noticing their once inanimate friend, almost causing Evy, Henderson and Daniels to run into him. The mummy regarded them for a brief moment, and decided they weren't worth his efforts, before he turned back to Rick and Lillian and screamed in their direction.

O'Connell yelled back at it, before blowing a chunk of it off with his shotgun. Once it hit the ground, he grabbed Lillian's hand and urged her forward.

"Move!" Rick yelled, and the other four ran after them, with Jonathon rambling, asking them if they had seen the mummy, which, of course, they had.

"It was walking. It was walking!" He shouted, as they rushed away from the creature.

They raced through the tunnels until they reached the surface again, but just when they had gotten away from the creature, they had run back into the men in black. All of whom pointed rifles at them. Lillian sighed, but noticed Evy's gaze was fixed on the leader, who had just uncovered his face. Lillian couldn't believe that Evy had just formed a crush on one of the men who was threatening her. She even had her hands raised in surrender, mirroring their brother, but she still had this mystified look on her face.

"I told you to leave or die. You refused. Now you may have killed us all. You have unleashed a creature we have feared for more than 3,000 years." He said, and Lillian's usually long fuse was coming to it's end, and it was attached to a big, big stick of dynamite.

"Relax. I got him." Rick said, and Lillian almost wanted to hit him. Bullets weren't going to kill it.

"No mortal weapon can kill this creature. He's not of this world." The leader said, and Lillian couldn't help herself or bite her tongue any longer.

"Then maybe your ancestors shouldn't have placed a curse upon it in the first place," She said, and the leader's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't expected this woman to identify his tribe for what they are. "You're the Mejai. Descendant's of the bodyguards of the Pharaoh. Your ancestors would have been the ones to place the curse upon him. So, if we're talking technicalities, my sister may have brought him back to life, but in actuality it's your fault."

"Is this also our fault?" He questioned, and two of his men brought forward a groaning Mr. Burns, and gently placed him on the floor in front of Henderson and Daniels.

"You bastards." Daniels seethed, as he stared at the men in black or Mejai as the gun-toting woman called them.

"What did you do to him?" Henderson demanded.

"We saved him before the creature could finish his work. Leave, all of you, quickly, before he finishes you all," He said, before he ordered his men to leave in Arabic. "We must now go on a hunt and try to find a way to kill him."

"I already told you I got him."

The man turned around and stared at O'Connell for a moment before he spoke in an even more serious manner than before.

"Know this. This creature is the bringer of death. He will never eat, he will never sleep…and he will never stop."


	7. The Curse in Cairo

They left that night, and two days later the group were entering Fort Brydon, Cairo. They were back home, and Lillian was glad. She thought that she smelt like sweat, and sand, and death. It was horrible. But as soon as they got back to Cairo, Lillian went to her apartment and grabbed all her clothes before joining the others at a hotel. She had unpacked all of her clothes into the drawers in the hotel room she and Evy were sharing. There were two bedrooms to it, and it was quite nice. She was enjoying the quiet, until it was interrupted.

O'Connell stared at her as she organised her shirts into a drawer with something akin to horror, though before he realised what she was doing, he had noticed that she was back in a shirt and trousers. He liked this look just as much as the crop top and long skirt combo. She looked more at ease now, though.

"What are you doing?" He questioned, moving in to the room, and looked pointedly at the empty trunks.

"What does it look like, O'Connell? I'm unpacking my belongings. I've already finished hanging up dresses, skirts and trousers, and now I'm putting away shirts and nightdresses." Lillian explained to him, ignoring the fact she knew what he was really talking about. Instead, she just stood up and began packing her underwear into a drawer.

O'Connell stormed into her closet, and grabbed a handful of her clothes, as Lillian watched. The white cat that belonged to her sister sat on top one of her empty trunks, and she stroked behind its ear. It was useless to get in his way, until she was certain this was just a regular hissy fit.

"I thought you said you didn't believe in fairy tales and hokum. Shoo!" He said, and she quickly lifted the cat before he could knock it over as he flipped open the trunk and dumped her clothes into it.

"I never said that. My sister said that, but encountering a 3,000 year old walking, talking corpse tends to convert one's beliefs!" Lillian protested, dropping the car into the lid of the trunk and seized her clothes and put them back where he found them. Rick was rooting through her drawers, lifting all the silk, cotton and lace out of them and carried them over to the newly emptied trunk and unceremoniously dumped everything in to it.

"Forget it. We're out the door, down the hall and we're gone." Rick said, and Lillian bristled as she picked her lingerie and nightclothes back out of the trunk, half-pissed that he had the nerve to touch her underclothes in the first place.

"You, sir, are not the boss of me. We aren't going!" Lillian protested.

"Yes, we are."

"Oh, no we are not. We woke him up, and we are going to stop him." Lillian said, dropping her clothes onto her bed, forgetting them for now as she stepped forward and stopped O'Connell from grabbing a collection of books she had brought on the off-chance she could find something in them to help them figure out how to stop the…mummy from causing any harm.

"'We'? What 'we'? We did not read that book. Your sister read that book. I told her not to play around with that thing. Didn't I tell her not to play around with that thing?" He said, as he stared down at her.

"Fine. 'We' as in Evy and I. Evy woke him up and I am going to stop him." Lillian insisted, grabbing his arm to stop him reaching out for the books again. Rick stared down at where her hand was lightly gripping his arm, before he raised his blue eyes back to her dark ones.

"How? You heard the man. No mortal weapons can kill this guy." Rick replied, trying to poke enough holes into whatever plan she was making so that she wouldn't go through with it.

"Then we are just going to have to find some immortal weapons." Lillian retorted, frustration pouring into her voice. She was being pushed, she knew. He was purposefully pushing her.

"There goes that 'we' again." Rick commented, staring up as though he was talking to someone else, before he moved around her and rested his hands on the rim of her trunk.

"Will you listen to me?" She questioned, slamming the lid of the trunk down, and it landed heavily on Rick's fingers. She paid no attention to the pain she had just caused him, and carried on talking. She followed him as he circled round the room. "Once this creature is reborn his curse will spread till the earth is destroyed."

"Yeah?" Rick questioned, raising his voice and stopped in the middle of the room, whirling around on her. "Is that my problem?"

"It bloody well will be, O'Connell, it'll be everyone's problem!" Lillian shouted at him, as she walked away from him, and this time he was following her around the room, as she straightened things up that he had messed up in his tirade.

"Lillian, I appreciate you saving my life and all," O'Connell said, quieter and softer this time, as he followed her around the table. Then he raised his voice again. "But when I signed on, I agreed to take you out there and to bring you back. And I have done that. End of job. End of story. Contract terminated."

And then the dark haired, olive skinned beauty in front of him said something he hadn't expected her to.

"That's all I mean to you? A contract?" Lillian questioned, and he could see the tiniest bit of hurt in her eyes, before she masked it with anger.

"Look, you can tag along with me, or you can stay here and try and save the world!" Rick said, as they glared at each other. "What's it gonna be?"

"I'm staying. Like you said, you were paid to do a job, you've done it. You're free to leave whenever you want," Her voice was almost cold as she said those words, and he knew that he would come to regret saying that he was only here because of the contract between them. "And whether or not you're leaving Cairo, I suggest you leave my room, before I shoot you for upsetting me."

"Lillian-"

"Get out, Mr O'Connell. I am finished talking with you." Lillian said, turning her back on him, and moving away from him to re-organise her drawers. She heard the door close behind him, and let the air rush out of her lungs as she sighed in frustration.

That man was infuriating.

* * *

Lillian was walking with Evy, her sister's nose was in a book, and Lillian was playing bodyguard, though she really was the one who needed one. Her guns were holstered and loaded at her shoulders. She had two additional guns strapped to her legs, and her knife tucked into her boot. She had a few bullets in her trouser pockets just in case as well. She was a walking, talking, ammunition's station.

Every so often there was a crack of lightening that pulled Evy's nose out of her book, and she would exchange the same knowing glance with Lillian each time.

"Oh, Lillian! Evelyn!" A familiar American accent called from behind the two sisters, causing them to turn. Lillian regarded the man with a knowing glance, before she looked at her sister again, avoiding his eyes as he rushed towards them. He knew then that she was still angry with him.

"So you're still here." Evy said, greeting O'Connell.

"We've got problems." Rick said, as he came to a stop in front of the Carnahan women. And just as he said those words, lightening cracked, it started to rain and even worse….large, fiery meteorites fell from the sky. Rick, Lillian and Evy gazed up at them, before they unfroze from their frightened stupor. Rick pulled on Lillian's arm, and Lillian grabbed Evy's hand, towing her behind the two fighters as the man led them to safety as the fireballs burned and squashed people out in the open. They soon realised that they had no where to go, so stood and tried to pick out their best option.

That is until a very cowardly face tried to sneak back up some stairs behind them to avoid being seen. Rick grabbed Beni and pushed him up against the staircase wall, while Lillian only half-listened as she held Evy in her arms and winced as she watched people burning.

"Beni, you little stinkweed. Where you been?" Rick questioned, and was answered by a loud, familiar, inhuman growl. Beni ran past the two women, who looked up at Rick. Lillian let go of her sister with one arm, using it to pull out one of her guns, and Rick grabbed hold of Lillian once more and pulled her up the stairs by her arm.

They headed into the Americans apartment, and were horrified by what they saw. A body that could only have been Mr Burns had been sucked dry, with only one culprit, that was now standing in the fire and regenerating into something a little more human.

Evy gasped beside Lillian, who stared at the creature in front of her, absolutely terrified but completely, and ashamedly, fascinated too. The mummy turned and now looked a little more fleshy, and growled at them. Rick and Lillian raised their pistols at it, but glanced at each other nervously.

"We are in serious trouble." O'Connell said, and Lillian nodded, their eyes averted back to the creature in front of them.

Rick had both of his pistols out now, and as the creature advanced on them, he began to fire. Lillian grabbed Evy and moved to the side, allowing Rick to do what he had to do. Her priority was her younger sister, and he knew that. The bullets just ripped through the mummy as he kept stalking forward, and appeared to do little damage. Soon Rick's pistols were out of ammo, and the creature lifted him, and threw him backwards. The American landed on the other two Americans and Jonathon, who had just entered the room and were about to draw their weapons.

Lillian shoved Evy away from her, as the creature turned to her, knowing her sister wasn't what it wanted. She raised her pistol, but it knocked the weapon out of her hand, so she just backed away, until her back hit a bookshelf and she was boxed in.

"_You saved me from the undead. I thank you_." The mummy said, in ancient Egyptian, before he leaned in towards her. Lillian's eyes widened as he tried to kiss her, and she tried to turn her head away. But before the creature could defile her mouth, Evy's cat pounced on the piano and made its presence known.

The creature gasped loudly at the sight of the white cat, and turned itself into sand and escaped the room, leaving Lillian breathing heavily, scared out of her wits.

Rick pushed himself upright further, and said what each person in the room was thinking, "We are in very serious trouble" and Lillian slowly lowered herself to the floor, and breathed slow deep breaths in an attempt to stop her body from shaking. Jonathon had already clambered to his feet to check that Evy was okay, and Rick noticed how scared Lillian still was, so he crawled over to her, and pulled her towards him.

Lillian reluctantly accepted the comfort that O'Connell was willing to provide. She felt weak being so terrified by the creature, when everyone else wasn't. She wasn't used to feeling that way. She was the strong one. Lillian comforted others, not the other way around. But here she was, crashing down from a near panic attack, after almost being kissed by a member of the undead. Yet she felt herself getting closer to a calm state of mind as she nuzzled her face into the American's neck, wrapping her arms around his neck, as his were wrapped around her back.

After another moment, she started to get embarrassed so pulled away from him, crawling over to her gun, grabbing it before she climbed to her feet. She cleared her throat, and pushed past O'Connell to get to the exit, rushing out because she needed air.

Rick moved to follow her, but Jonathon put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Give her a minute, old chap, she needs to collect herself."

When the four men and Evy joined Lillian outside, she had a grim smile on her face, the red rims around her eyes the only indication that she had just been terrified mere moments ago. Rick stepped towards her, but she took a step back. She was distancing herself from him because she was ashamed of her behaviour, but he thought it was because of him. Yet Rick let it go anyway. They had bigger problems.

"We need to visit the museum. There's got to be something about Hamunaptra, the mummy and this curse there. Let's get moving." Lillian said, setting off without looking back to see if the others were following her. All she heard was someone say "Here we go again" and then heard five pairs of footfalls behind her. They needed answers quickly and they were going to get them, even if it meant that Lillian had to read every book in that damn library. She was not going to nearly get kissed by some gooey mummy again.

* * *

"He seems to like Lillian." Jonathon commented casually, as they followed his two sisters who were almost on a rampage through the museum. Lillian stiffened slightly as she walked, but made no acknowledgement of her brother speaking at all.

"Yeah, what's that about?" Rick questioned, but was once again ignored.

"What's this guy want?" Daniels asked, and this time Evy actually gave the American an answer.

"There's only one person I know who can possibly give us any answers." She said, as she and Lillian turned the corner and stalled. The curator was standing right in front of them, with the leader of the Mejai, who stared at them all with surprisingly little anger or hate. Lillian heard the drawing of guns behind her, but didn't draw her own. If he had come here to kill them or attack them, he would have brought more men.

"You!" Evy pointed at the man in black, with a voice that should have sounded angry, but came out surprisingly soft. Lillian eyed her sister, and then the man, both of whom were sharing the same expression. Attraction. Lillian sighed, and nudged her sister.

"Miss Carnahan. Miss Carnahan. Gentlemen." The curator greeted them in turn, smiling genuinely at the two women who appeared to be calm, and then giving a sardonic look towards the men still pointing their weapons at his guest.

"What is he doing here?" Lillian questioned, though not with any anger or suspicion in her tone.

"Do you really want to know, or would you prefer to just shoot us?" The curator questioned, and Lillian cast a look backwards at O'Connell, eyebrow arched as if to say 'well?'. He was a smart man, but a little slow on the uptake. She turned back, but heard him holster his pistol again.

"After what I just saw…I'm willing to go on a little faith here." He said, and the corners of Lillian's mouth twisted up in a small smile, which disappeared just as quickly as it had arrived.

* * *

The group of six moved into the room, and they all tried to get as comfortable as possible, whilst waiting for the curator to explain the presence of a man who had tried to kill them once. Lillian leaned against a wall, near the exit, her eyes constantly roaming over each individual and the other exits, but they would pause a little too long on O'Connell for her liking. He was sat in a chair, near to where her sister stood, and sometimes their eyes locked before she quickly averted hers. Then they both focused on the old man as he finally began to explain himself.

"We are part of an ancient secret society. For over 3,000 years we have guarded the City of the Dead. We are sworn at manhood to do any and all in our power to stop the High Priest Imhotep from being reborn into this world." The curator said, but before he or the man in the black robes, who had yet to give a name, could continue, Lillian interjected something with her usual brand of casual sarcasm.

"Yet, you couldn't stop a small librarian from raising him from the dead. You gentlemen are really upholding the standards of your ancestors." She sniped, as she crossed her arms over her chest, and smirked at them. Both men gave her a dark look, before speaking again.

"And now, because of you, we have failed." The tribal man said simply.

"And you think this justifies the killing of innocent people?" Evy questioned, and Lillian rolled her eyes.

These ancient societies were often full of lunatics, and her sister asked that question? Sometimes Lillian really had to question how naïve her sister really was.

"To stop this creature? Let me think," The curator started, and then both he and the man in black continued in unison, "Yes!".

Evy stared at them for a moment, before walking across the room, clearly bothered by their answer. Lillian's eyes followed her younger sibling before they were drawn to her -though she wouldn't ever be stupid enough to admit it out loud - favourite American.

"Question," O'Connell said, raising a hand in the slightly in the air to gain their attention. Like a school kid. "Why doesn't he like cats?"

"Cats are the guardians of the underworld. He'll fear them until he's fully regenerated." The curator explained.

"Then he will fear nothing." The Mejai leader said, clearly angry at the very thought of it.

"You know how he gets himself fully regenerated?" Daniels questioned.

"By killing everyone who opened the chest." Henderson said, quietly. Lillian pitied them, though she didn't show any remorse. They had brought this curse upon themselves, and right now, she was slightly more worried about her brother and her sister, and herself as selfish as that was.

"And sucking them dry, that's how!" Daniels almost shouted, and Lillian felt the need to interject.

"In any other situation, I would say a smug I told you so, but I don't think that's entirely applicable to this certain situation." Lillian said, giving Henderson a meaningful look, which he shook his head at. He knew that she had told him that this would happen, but by the time she had given her warning it had already been too late.

"Stop playing with that," Evy snapped at Jonathon, as he played with a bow on the back of a life-size model of Seti's chariot. "The creature has shown a odd fascination with my sister. Why is that?"

Everyone in the room turned their heads to stare at Lillian, as if the answer would come to them just by gawping at her. Lillian sighed in frustration, breathing slowly to get a handle on her anger. She couldn't for the life of her understand why she was angry, but she was.

"At Hamunaptra, he called me Anck-su-namun. And just now, in Burns' quarters, he tried to kiss me." Lillian explained, and watched with narrowing eyes at the curator and the black robed man exchanged a look.

"It's because of his love for Anck-su-namun that he was cursed. Apparently, even after 3,000 years…" The curator trailed off, and the Mejai leader continued for the old man.

"He's still in love with her."

"Well that's romantic and lovely and slightly obsessive and everything, but what does that have to do with me?" Lillian questioned, glaring at the two men who had all the answers, waiting for an answer.

"Perhaps he will once again try to raise her from the dead." The dark haired man suggested.

"And it appears he has already chosen his human sacrifice."

Lillian's eyes widened, and her body stiffened. Evy, Jonathon and O'Connell had all frozen, their eyes lapsing onto Lillian in concern. Lillian pinched the bridge of her nose, seemingly exasperated, before she let out a small nervous giggle.

"Oh, this is just fantastic. 'Let's go see Evy, spend some time with my baby sister', I said. Now I'm the object of a 3,000 year old mummy's misplaced affections!" Lillian chuckled darkly to herself, running a hand across her head, before she sighed and slid down the wall.

"Bad luck, old mum!" Jonathon said to his sister, though he was slightly more concerned then he let on. His little sister could end up being a human sacrifice! That certainly was not what his father had meant when he had asked Jonathon to look after his baby sisters should the worst ever happen.

"On the contrary, it may just give us the time we need to kill the creature." The curator enthused, ignoring the glare that the Carnahan's and O'Connell were giving him.

"We will need all the help we can get. His powers are growing." The Mejai soldier said, his eyes turned upwards towards the roof. They all moved towards him and followed his gaze, watching as the moon eclipsed the sun.

"'And he stretched forth his hand towards the heavens…and there was darkness throughout the land of Egypt'." Jonathon said, quoting scripture once again, as the darkness descended upon them.


	8. The Regeneration and Lillian's Choice

Chapter Eight

"We must stop him from regenerating. Who opened that chest?" Evy demanded, when they were all back in Evy and Lillian's hotel room. They had decided to go back there to regroup, and collect their thoughts and maybe…just maybe come up with a plan to kill the damn creature, before he could sacrifice Lillian and take over the world.

"Well, there's me and Daniels here. And Burns, of course." Henderson informed her, though Lillian already knew exactly who had opened the chest. They all had the canopic jars and she had warned them.

"And the Egyptologist fella!" Daniels added, from his seat around the small, round table. He, Jonathon and Lillian sat at the table,

"What about my buddy Beni?" O'Connell questioned, and Lillian rolled her eyes. Despite the amount of nastiness between the pair, O'Connell was still concerned over Beni and whether or not the con artist lived still.

"Naw, he scrammed outta there before we could open the damn thing." Daniels answered.

"Yeah, he was the smart one." Henderson added, smiling slightly, in spite of his misfortunes.

"Yeah that sounds like Beni." Rick said, as he approached the table. He had been standing near the window, staring out at the dark sun, his body tense. Lillian had found herself staring at him at one point, until she caught herself and forced her eyes away. What was it about that American that just drew her to him?

"We must find the Egyptologist and bring him back to the safety of the fort before the creature can get to him." Evy said, and Rick seemed to agree with her. But when Lillian went to stand, his words both angered and shocked her.

"Right. The women stay here. You three, come with me." Rick said, signalling to the men with a waggle of his finger.

But all he was met with was protests; Evy and Lillian were outraged that he was leaving them behind, especially Lillian, and the three men were - though they'd never admit to it out loud - afraid of leaving the safety of the apartment.

"You can't leave me behind here like some old carpetbag! I mean, who put you in charge?" Evy said, walking towards him. Rick strode towards her, lifting her over his shoulder and opening the double doors that led into Lillian's room. "What do you think you are doing?"

O'Connell just ignored her protests, and dumped her on Lillian's bed, closing the doors behind him and locking them. He then turned to Lillian, and she arched a brow at him.

"If you're thinking of doing the same to me, then you'll find a knife in your back, sir. I won't be treated like a sack of garbage. I'll stay, but only because I'm not overly excited about that creature finding us and having it trying to force itself on me again." Lillian said, as she opened the doors to her room, shoving her sister back inside it, and closed the door again.

Rick grinned at the space she had been, glad that she hadn't put up a fight like Evelyn had. He wasn't certain he would have won against Lillian. She was a fierce broad. He grabbed Daniels and pulled him over to the door, glaring down at the shorter man.

"This door doesn't open. They don't come out, and no one goes in."

"O'Connell, make sure one of them brings me a drink!" Lillian called through the door, raising her voice to be heard over Evy's complaints.

"And bring her a drink. She'll probably want some hard liquor, not something weak or lady-like," Rick said, still gripping the man's shirt. "But other than that…the door doesn't open. Right?"

"Right." Daniels repeated, almost gulping at the fierce expression on Rick's face. He knew then that O'Connell was sweet on that broad. The elder one, not the loud, bossy younger one. He wasn't surprised to be honest. The woman was different than most others.

Rick then turned his attention to Henderson, without letting Daniels go.

"Right?"

"Right." Henderson mimicked, and Rick finally let Daniels go, stepping away from him.

"O'Connell! Jonathon!" Evy called through the door, as she pounded her fists against the wood. And then they heard Evy complaining to her sister, telling her to let her go. Rick deduced that since the knocking had stopped, Lillian had dragged Evy away from the door.

"Let's go, Jonathon." Rick said, straightening his shoulder holsters, as he strode towards the door. The Carnahan brother made no move to get up and follow him, staying in his seat at the table with his flask in hand.

"Um, I thought I could say at the fort and reconnoiter." Jonathon suggested, but knew that he wouldn't get his way. He never got his way.

"Now!" Rick called from down the hallway, and Jonathon was quick to get to his feet. O'Connell could kill him if he really wanted to, and Jonathon still remembered how hard he had punched him when he was behind bars in that Cairo prison.

"Right. We're just gonna rescue the Egyptologist." Jonathon muttered, as he followed dutifully after O'Connell, leaving behind the two Americans in charge of protecting his two baby sisters. It was a comforting thought knowing that he had two crack shots here to defend the two women in his family should they need it. Though Lillian could probably kill both of them in her sleep, which would leave her defenceless against the creature should it arrive…

Jonathon shook his morbid thoughts away as he caught up to O'Connell. They had an Egyptologist to find.

Lillian convinced her sister to borrow one of her nightgowns and get into bed, so her Evy was now sleeping. Lillian herself was lying on the left side of the bed, still completely dressed, and was halfway towards sleep. She kept thinking of O'Connell and Jonathon and whether or not they were safe, and the damn drink she had asked for that hadn't arrived. Those stupid American men….so unreliable, she thought as she drifted off to sleep.

But just before she reached deep sleep, she felt a pressure on her mouth that she was only half sure wasn't a dream. So she forced her eyes to open and screamed into the mummified mouth of Imhotep. He had clearly almost finished regeneration, because most of him looked human, except for his mouth. Which was still attached to hers.

Evy woke up and screamed, rolling off the bed and kneeling beside it, as Lillian struggled to reach for her knife that was beneath her pillow. She had a knife and her two pistols strapped to her body, but the creature had cut off her access to those, so she just had to hope that the one she had placed under the pillow was still there. Once her fingers curled round it, she shoved it between its ribs.

And then the door burst open and O'Connell and Jonathon stepped in, almost casually. O'Connell moved a little further into the room and the creature looked at him, like a giant would a fly, but leant slightly away from Lillian. This gave her space to shuffle across the bed towards Evy, who pulled her off the bed and into her arms, and began stoking her hair as though she was about to break down. Which wasn't that unlikely. Imhotep, a still slightly mummified creature of the undead, had just forced his mouth on hers while she slept. She felt violated in the worst way.

"Get your ugly face off of her!" O'Connell yelled, and the creature replied something in Ancient Egyptian that the American didn't understand, but he figured that most of it was threatening, so held up his secret weapon. "Look what I got."

The mummy saw the white cat, which hissed at him, and screeched in fear, before turning himself into a sandstorm, which covered the whole room, causing all four of them to shield their eyes. When the window slammed shut, and the horrendous shrieking had stopped, they knew the creature was gone. Lillian lifted her head above the edge of the bed, and stared at the two men.

"I could use that bloody drink now." She breathed, before she furiously wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, in an attempt to get the feel of the creature's 'mouth' off of hers. She didn't think anything could remove the feel of the mummy's mouth from hers at any point in time. She would be feeling it on her death bed.

"You all right?" Rick questioned, concerned for her.

"I'm not sure." Her brother replied, and both Lillian and Rick glared at him.

"Of course she's not all right! A creature of the undead just forced himself on her while she was asleep!" Evy shouted at the thoughtless American. He looked affronted but didn't say anything, because technically the youngest Carnahan had a point.

"I'm fine, Evy. It was just a kiss," Lillian said, as she rose to her feet and walked around the bed until she was on her right side again.. "Yes, I was asleep. And yes, it wasn't a living person. And yes, it was a mummy who has been trying to kill us. But I am fine. I won't lose my head about this. I'm just going to move on, grab my weapons and blow the bastard up with some dynamite."

"That's my girl!" Jonathon said, as he moved towards her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "But what do we do before then?"

"We go back to the museum obviously. We need to kill the creature, ergo we need to find the key to killing him. And then we'll find that we need the Book of Amun-Ra to send his soul back to the underworld, which we will find directions to in the museum." Lillian said, as she leaned into her brother's embrace. Jonathon may be a coward, and a cheat, and a liar, and a thief, but he was her older brother and he was always there to comfort her when she really needed him. Which in truth was more often then she cared to admit.

"Then let's go." Rick said, expecting them to all follow him out the room, but when he realised that only two out of three of the Carnahan's had followed him, he back-pedalled to Lillian's bedroom.

He looked around the room as he couldn't see her, until he looked down and spotted her legs poking out from underneath the bed. He stared at them for a moment. She was giving him a wonderful view of her ass, but he quickly tore his eyes away, remembering that he was trying to be a gentleman with her. He cleared his throat before he spoke, so she knew that he was in the room with her.

"What are you doing?" He questioned, smirking in amusement at the curse that tumbled out of the woman's mouth as she hit her head on the bottom of the bed. Obviously the throat clearing wasn't much of a warning.

"I'm grabbing my weapons. We'll need them." Lillian's voice murmured, as she wriggled backwards, slinging the bag across the room until it stopped by his feet. Lillian's face emerged and she sighed, as Rick held out a hand to help her up. She took it, and he hauled her to her feet. She gave him a grateful smile, before she picked up her weapons bag.

"Are you sure you're fine? It's okay if you're not…you did just get kissed by a gooey mummy." Rick said, stopping her from leaving the room by a firm hand on the arm.

"I'm fine, Rick," Lillian snapped, yanking her arm out of his grip before storming towards the door. Rick watched her, and was about to follow her when she stopped, and smiled at him. This woman was going to give him whiplash with her mood swings. "But in case you're really worried, you're the better kisser."

And with that she breezed out the door, leaving the American to trail behind her, grinning to himself in victory. Though if he had thought about it more, he would have realised that it wasn't much of a victory to win against a mummy who had basically defiled her mouth while she slept.

The pair caught up to Evy, Jonathon, and Daniels, all of whom were lamenting the end of Henderson. His dried up body was just dumped on the floor, and Lillian felt sorry for the dead man. Henderson was a nice guy, and no one deserved to die in such a way in her opinion.

Once they had finished mourning the loss of another one of the Americans, the group of five rushed out of the hotel, into Jonathan's car and headed to the museum.

As soon as Jonathon pulled the car up outside the museum, Rick, Lillian and Daniels jumped out. Lillian helped Evy out the car, and then as soon as Jonathan had finished parking, they all raced inside.

They caused such a commotion that the curator and the leader of the Mejai appeared from nowhere brandishing swords. Those were quickly put away at the sight of the group, and Evy speedily explained what had happened. The pair of Mejai warriors understood now the urgency they were in, and the curator ushered the group up a couple of flights of stairs, as Evy gave a commentary to the three men who didn't fully understand exactly what they were looking for.

"According to legend, the black book found by the Americans at Hamunaptra can bring people back from the dead. Until now I did not believe it." Evy said, and Lillian almost scoffed. Well there was no doubting the legends now, was there? Not when three of their friends were sucked dry by the same undead mummy that had tried to kiss her.

"Well believe it, sister. That's what brought our buddy back to life." O'Connell sniped at Lillian's younger sister. And normally, Lillian would have gone to Evy's defence, but in this scenario, she was the object of a 3,000 year old mummy's misplaced love, and that same mummy was going to take over the world.

"Yes, and Lillian and I have both deduced that if the black book can bring people back to life, then-" Evy began to explain, but Rick cut her off, his mind already at the finish line of her own thoughts.

"Then maybe the gold book can kill him." The American said unenthusiastically. They didn't have the gold book. No one had the gold book. So that wasn't exactly a viable option.

"That's the myth. Now we just have to find out where the gold book is hidden." Lillian said, as they reached the top of the stairs.

Yet when they did, their ears began to pick up the soft chanting of a large crowd in the distance. The group moved towards a window and Evy gasped at the sight. There had to be hundreds of sick, poor people marching on the museum with torches, chanting 'Imhotep' over and over again.

"Last but not least, my favourite plague…boils and sores." Jonathon said, as the crowd got closer.

"They have become his slaves. So it has begun, the beginning of the end." The younger Mejai warrior lamented, and Lillian frowned at that.

"It will be with that attitude. You're not the one who's going to get sacrificed, so stop with your 'woe is me' routine. It's frankly rather tiring. Not let's go and find the inscription that will lead us to the right book. Come on." Lillian snapped, walking away from the window to a giant rock slab that had hieroglyphics inscribed all over it.

The other six people exchanged a very brief glance before they followed her over to the tablet, which she was already skimming through. Evy and the curator began trying to find the location as well, while the other four stood around them.

"According to the Bembridge scholars the golden Book of Amun-Ra was located inside the statue of Anubis." Evy said, as she read the hieroglyphs as she traced them with her fingers. Both her sister and the curator were doing the same, though silently. They were trying to focus completely on the ancient Egyptian glyphs, so didn't speak so they didn't break their focus.

"That's where we found the black book." Daniels said.

"Exactly." Evy replied.

"Looks like the old boys at Bembridge were wrong." Jonathan commented, as he stood just behind his sisters, watching over their shoulders as they skimmed the ancient Egyptian text.

"They mixed the books up. Mixed up where they were buried." Evy started, and Lillian caught up to her line of thought and fleshed it out and continued it.

"So if the black book is inside the statue of Anubis…then the golden book is inside…" Lillian trailed off as she tried to find the answer on the tablet.

She heard the sound of the door being broken down, the chanting of victorious slaves and the thundering of a hundred footsteps.

"Come on, Evy, Lily. Faster." Jonathon urged, as the three other men look over the balcony at the swarming mass that had entered the museum.

"Patience is a virtue." Evy replied simply, neither of the two sisters or the curator didn't take their eyes away from the stone slab of inscriptions to address the Carnahan man properly.

"Not right now it isn't." Rick said, and Lillian started to read more rapidly, as though his words seeped into her more than her brother's own urgings. She could hear Imhotep's slaves getting closer, and knew that they would die if they didn't find the directions to the Book of Amun-Ra very, very quickly.

"Uh, I think I'll go get the car started." Jonathon said, turning on his heel and rushing away.

And just seconds later, Evy found their answer.

"I've got it! The Book of Amun-Ra is at Hamunaptra inside the statue of Horus. Take that, Bembridge scholars." She said, grinning as all three of the archaeologists stepped away from the tablet.

Lillian smiled at her, tiredly and tensely, before she grabbed her arm and started yanking her in the direction that Jonathon had gone.

"We'll rub it in their faces later, sweetheart, okay? Right now, it's time to go." Lillian said, as O'Connell grabbed her hand. She didn't think anything of it as they ran out the building and headed to Jonathon's car. Not only was it not the first time he had held her hand, but it was not the appropriate time to ponder whether or not the significance of it had changed.

"Let's go, let's go!" Jonathon shouted to them, as they all skidded round the corner and got into his sights.

Daniels broke apart from the rest of them and started shouting at Jonathon to get the car into gear, as he dove into the car.

"Up you go, Evy." Lillian muttered, as she and O'Connell lifted Evy into the second part of the car in between the curator and Ardeth. Rick then hoisted Lillian by her waist into the front of the car, and then climbed in after, but didn't get to sit down as something made him pause.

"Imhotep!" They heard a familiar nasal voice shout, and they turned to see Beni on the steps of the museum entrance, shouting upwards. Lillian followed his line of sight, and there was the undead bastard standing in front of the very window they had looked out of mere moments ago.

Imhotep let out a might screech, and then his slaves started to race out of the museum doors.

"You're gonna get yours, Beni! You hear me?" O'Connell shouted at the weasel of a man, pointing at him angrily, as Jonathon pealed away. "You're gonna get yours!"

They didn't get to hear the skinny traitors reply as they sped away, because it was drowned out by the shouts and chants of the boil covered minions of Imhotep that chased after them on foot.

Jonathon drove through the markets of the Fort, and he and Rick exchanged a quick glance of relief once the American was sure that they had outrun the hoard. And then Jonathon turned his attention back to the road in front of him, and quickly braked to avoid running into the large mass of mindless slaves that seemed to have formed from nowhere. They stared at Imhotep's minions, and they stared back, but neither made any move whatsoever.

Until Rick got impatient, and stamped on the gas himself, and Jonathon's foot, and forced the car to speed forward. As they raced forward, the slaves started to run towards them again.

"Hang on!" Rick shouted, as the car drove into the hoard of slaves.

Lillian winced as these men just bounced off their car as they kept throwing themselves at it. Until one managed to stay on…and then more, until the car was covered with these men. Lillian immediately got to her feet, and helped O'Connell beat them off the car as Jonathon drove forward. Even Evy helped by poking one of them in the eye, allowing the curator to shove him off as he began to cradle his eye.

But while the others were distracted trying to get these men off the car, two slaves who were hanging off the back, managed to grab Daniels from behind and started to pull him out of the car.

"O'Connell!" He called, but it was too late. The two slaves yanked him out of the car, and the last that Rick and Lillian saw of him was him rolling to his feet and shooting at the mass of slaves that were after them.

Jonathon drove forward, until he crashed the car into a water fountain, successfully shaking off the slaves. Rick, Lillian and the Mejai leader jumped out first, with the Mejai leader helping Evy out, and the others followed them.

"Okay! Go, go!" Rick urged as they abandoned the car and started to run as the hoard of Imhotep's minions rushed towards them. Lillian had her bag of weapons slung across her shoulder, and her pistols out as they were backed into a corner.

There was no where to run. No way of escape. Rick grabbed a lit torch from the ground and waved it around as the slaves stopped in a semi-circle around them, and began to chant Imhotep's name over and over again. The six moved closer together with Evy and Lillian at the back of them. Lillian knew it was because she was the one that Imhotep wanted and Evy was a defenceless woman, so she didn't scowl at the fact that she was being protected. O'Connell stood directly in front of Lillian, still wielding his torch as his eyes darted about everywhere, wondering why they weren't attacking.

The crowd in front of them parted, and Imhotep and Beni walked forwards. Lillian felt ice crawl its way into her heart. He no longer looked like a mummy, which meant…

"It's the creature. He's fully regenerated." The curator said quietly, and Lillian heard Evy gasp beside her.

Imhotep seemed to stare at her, looking past Rick and at her, as though he was staring into her soul. Lillian shivered involuntarily despite the Egyptian heat, and felt incredibly uncomfortable.

He started to speak in Ancient Egyptian, and though Lillian and Evy understood what he said, Beni translated it for the others.

"'Come with me, my princess. It is time to make you mine forever.'" Beni said, smugly.

"'For all eternity,' idiot." Evy said, causing Lillian to stare at her bug-eyed..

"That's really not the issue right now, Evy!" Lillian hissed at her, before the creature began to speak again, and he held out his hand towards her.

"'Take my hand and I will spare your friends.'." Beni translated.

Lillian lowered her guns and sighed, dropping her weapons bag off her shoulder.

"Have you got any bright ideas?" Evy questioned Rick, as she stared at her sister, who was remoistening her guns, with worry.

"I'm thinking. I'm thinking." Rick replied, looking back at the two women.

"Well, you'd better think of something fast, because if he turns me into a mummy, you're the first one I'm coming after, Rick." Lillian said, handing Evy her bag as she stepped forward, and took Imhotep's hand.

"No." Rick said, his voice thick with emotion, as he pulled out one of his pistols and aimed it at Imhotep.

"Don't!" Lillian cried, as the Mejai leader tried to force Rick's arm down so he couldn't shoot at the creature. "He'll take me to Hamunaptra to perform the ritual."

"She is right. Live today, fight tomorrow." The Mejai warrior said, as Lillian and Rick stared at each other meaningfully. She was telling him not to mess things up, and he reluctantly put away his gun.

And then Lillian did something that surprised everyone. She wrenched her arm away from Imhotep and walked back over to Rick, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"If it's too late to save me, and he turns me into her, I need you to…kill me, and then look after my brother and sister. I won't make you promise, because that's not fair, but that is my last request, O'Connell." She whispered in his ear, and then she pulled away, quickly pressing a slow kiss to his cheek, before she let Imhotep grab her again.

"I'll be seeing you again." Rick said to Imhotep, his eyes glistening with tears at Lillian's words.

Imhotep just smirked and led Lillian away.

"Lillian!" Rick said, as he tried to go after her, but the Mejai leader held him back, knowing that the woman had sacrificed herself to save them and it would do no good for the American to throw it back in her face.

Lillian kept looking back at him and her siblings, and watched as Beni stole the key from Jonathon, but then her attention was in turn stolen by Imhotep as he said something that filled her with pure animalistic rage.

"_Kill them all_!" He said in ancient Egyptian, and she stared at him with wide eyes. He had said he would spare them if she gave herself up.

"No! Let me go! Let go of me!" Lillian cried as she watched the crowd start to move again towards her friends and her brother and sister, but then she couldn't see them anymore, and her cries were ignored.

Tears rolled down her cheek, as she was led away kicking and screaming, because she didn't know whether or not the people she loved still lived. They could have escaped but the didn't seem likely to her. So she failed them, especially her siblings. She had vowed to protect them from anything, and now they were most likely dead.

Then Lillian realised that they were most likely dead…her brother and sister were her reason for living. She had no one else…well O'Connell, maybe, but he would be dead with them, so she was still alone. So Lillian stopped fighting Imhotep, and just accepted her fate. Especially now since she had nothing left to lose.


End file.
